Abstract
Although diversity categories enable academics to reflect on relationships and power inequities during the research process, psychosocial scholars argue that they also run the risk of homogenising and constraining our understanding of the other. The chapter employs the radical psychoanalytical principles of Reverie by Wilfred Bion (1962) to develop an approach more attuned to affect in the provision of reflexivity. Drawing on the accounts given by men and women executives and non-executives in accounting and finance, the chapter explains how reverie can alert scholars to the role that affect plays in shaping the direction of an unfolding dialogue, the establishment of affinities, and the presence of unconscious relational forms. The chapter makes a methodological contribution by tracing how the pragmatic imbrication of a specific aspect of psychoanalysis can offer hope to scholars wishing to move beyond the confines of diversity categories, as a way to begin to know their research participants.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Baker, D.T., and E.K. Kelan. 2018. Splitting and blaming: The psychic life of neoliberal executive women. Human Relations 0 (0): 1–29.
Bion, W.R. 1962. Learning from experience. London: William Heinemann Medical Books Ltd.
Butler, J. 1990. Gender trouble. New York, US and Oxford, UK: Routledge.
Cartwright, D. 2004. The psychoanalytic research interview: Preliminary suggestions. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 52 (1): 209–242.
Code, L. 1993. Taking subjectivity into account. In Feminist epistemologies, ed. L. Alcoff. New York: Routledge.
Frosh, S. 2010. Psychoanalysis outside the clinic: Interventions in psychosocial studies. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
Frosh, S., and L. Baraitser. 2008. Psychoanalysis and psychosocial studies. Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society 13 (S4): 346–365.
Gill, R. 1998. Standpoints and differences: Writing, reflexivity and the crisis of representation. In Standpoint and differences: Essays in the practice of feminist psychology, ed. K. Henwood, C. Griffin, and A. Phoenix. London: Sage.
———. 2009. Breaking the silence: The hidden injuries of the neoliberal university. In Secrecy and silence in the research process: Feminist reflections, ed. R. Ryan-Flood and R. Gill. Abingdon/New York.
Gill, R., and C. Scharff. 2011. New feminities: Postfeminism, neoliberalism and subjectivity. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
Grenz, S. 2005. Intersections of sex and power in research on prostitution: A female researcher interviewing male heterosexual clients. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 30 (4): 2091–2113.
Grotstein, J.S. 2007. A beam of intense darkness. London: Karnac Books.
Harding, S., and K. Norberg. 2005. New feminist approaches in social science; an introduction. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 30 (4): 2009–2015.
Hollway, W. 2008a. The importance of relational thinking in the practice of psycho-social research: Ontology, epistemology, methodology and ethics. In Object relations and social relations: The implications of the relational turn in psychoanalysis, ed. S. Clarke, P. Hoggett, and H. Hahn, 137–161. London: Karnac.
———. 2008b. Turning psychosocial? Towards a UK network. Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society 13 (2): 199–204.
———. 2010. Preserving vital signs: The use of psychoanalytically informed interviewing and observation in psycho-social longitudinal research. In Intensity and insight: Qualitative longitudinal methods as a route into the psycho-social, ed. R. Thomson. Timescapes working paper. Available from www.timescapes.leeds.ac.uk/
———. 2011a. Psycho-social writing from data. Journal of Psycho-Social Studies 5 (1): 92–101.
———. 2011b. Through discursive psychology to a psycho-social approach. In Social psychology: The turn to discourse, ed. N. Bozatzis and T. Dragonas, 209–240. Athens: Metaixmio.
———. 2012. Reverie in psycho-social research methods. Open Seminar video, from our Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies.
———. 2016. Emotional experience plus reflection: Countertransference and reflexivity in research. The Psychotherapist.
Hollway, W., and T. Jefferson. 2000a. Biography, anxiety and the experience of locality. In The turn to biographical methods in social science: Comparative issues and examples, ed. P. Chamberlayne, J. Bornat, and T. Wengraf, 167–180. London: Routledge.
———. 2000b. Doing qualitative research differently: Free association, narrative and the interview method. London: Sage Publications.
———. 2000c. Narrative, discourse and the unconscious: The case of Tommy. In Lines of narrative: Psychosocial perspective, ed. M. Andrews, S.D. Sclater, C. Squire, et al., 202. London/New York: Routledge.
———. 2008. The free association narrative interview method. In The Sage encyclopedia of qualitative research methods, 296–315. Sevenoaks: Sage.
Holmes, J. 2012. A comparison of clinical psychoanalysis and research interviews contextualizing the problem: A question of distance depersonalization and the scientific imperative in psychoanalysis and research. Human Relations 66 (669): 1183–1199.
Johnston, L. 2010. The place of secrets, silences and sexualities in the research process. In Secrecy and silence in the research process: Feminist reflections, ed. R. Ryan-Flood and R. Gill. Abingdon/New York: Routledge.
Kvale, S. 2003. The psychoanalytic interview as inspiration for qualitative research. In Qualitative research in psychology: Expanding perspectives in methodology and design, ed. P.M. Camic, J.E. Rhodes, and L. Yardley, 315. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Letherby, G. 2003. Feminist research in theory and practice. Philadelphia: Open University Press.
Maynard, M. 1995. Beyond the ‘big three’: The development of feminist theory into the 1990s. Women’s History Review 4 (3): 259–281.
McDowell, L. 1997. Capital culture: Gender at work in the city. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
———. 2001. Men, management and multiple masculinities in organisations. Geoforum 32 (2): 181–198.
Midgley, N. 2006. Psychoanalysis and qualitative psychology: Complementary or contradictory paradigms? Qualitative Research in Psychology 3 (3): 213–231.
Oakley, A. 1981. Interviewing women: A contradiction in terms. In Doing feminist research, ed. H. Roberts. London: Routledge.
Ogden, T. 1997a. Reverie and interpretation: Sensing something human. Northvale/London: Jason Aronson Inc.
———. 1997b. Reverie and metaphor: Some thoughts on how I work as a psychoanalyst. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 78: 719.
Parr, J. 1998. Theoretical voices and women’s own voices: The stories of mature women students. In Feminist dilemmas in qualitative research: Public knowledge and private lives, ed. J. Ribbens and J. Edwards. London: Sage.
Ramazanoglu, C., and J. Holland. 2002. Feminist methodology: Challenges and choices. London: Sage.
Reinharz, S. 1979. On becoming a social scientist. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Ryan-Flood, R., and R. Gill. 2010. Introduction. In Secrecy and silence in the research process: Feminist reflections, ed. R. Ryan-Flood and R. Gill. Abingdon/New York: Routledge.
Scharff, C. 2010. Silencing differences: The ‘unspoken’ dimensions of ‘speaking for others. In Secrecy and silence in the research process: Feminist reflections, ed. R. Ryan-Flood and R. Gill. Abingdon/New York: Routledge.
Standing, K. 1998. Writing the voices of the less powerful: Research on lone mothers. In Feminist dilemmas in qualitative research, ed. J. Ribbens and R. Edwards. London: Sage.
Walkerdine, V. 2007. Children, gender, video games: Towards a relational approach to multimedia. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Wolf, D. 1996. Feminist dilemmas in fieldwork. Boulder: Westview Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Baker, D.T. (2019). Reverie as Reflexivity. In: Fotaki, M., Pullen, A. (eds) Diversity, Affect and Embodiment in Organizing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98917-4_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98917-4_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-98916-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-98917-4
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)