Learning how to ask in ethnography and psychotherapy

Abstract

To social anthropologists an affinity with psychotherapy lies in the view that this discipline is a social science. Increasingly, social anthropologists offer comments and analyse their own data using psychotherapeutic or psychoanalytic frames of reference. At the same time, a methodological crisis has developed in ethnography. This is a crisis of how to carry out an ethnographic enquiry in a disciplined manner without either claiming to be a detached observer on the one hand or explaining away the subjective experiences of informants or clients with too much interpretation on the other. The aim of this paper is to address this crisis and to suggest ways in which ethnographers can use techniques from one type of psychotherapy, namely systemic or family psychotherapy in order to access social and psychological aspects of the lives of their informants. The paper achieves this by describing systemic psychotherapy and its theoretical foundations in the ethnographic work of Gregory Bateson. It then reviews the mainly medical anthropology literature in which the connection between psychotherapy and anthro pology has been discussed. While this literature has suggested a narrative and a performative approach to ethnographic data and, therefore, to informants, it has not extended the analytic frame to include the ethnographer him/herself within these frames. Clinical case material is presented to demonstrate how such an inclusion is central to the practice of systemic psychotherapy and to show that this type of material is ethnographic. The techniques of double description, hypothesising and circular questioning are described and demonstrated, and it is argued that adapting these to an ethnographic enquiry will enhance the validity of the anthropological project.

Using the extended case method to explore identity in a multiracial context

“…As noted earlier, research has indicated multiple dimensions to individual identity (Harris and Sims 2000). This study used circular questioning, common in family systems theory but only recently introduced to ethnographic interviewing (Krause 2003) to guide participants in exploring multiple contexts and dimensions of their racial and cultural identities. Solely to illustrate the type of interview data that this renders, this section presents a quote taken from one such interview.…”

A Critical Methodological Review of Discourse and Conversation Analysis Studies of Family Therapy

“…To date, the deployment of CA and DA for the study of family therapy remains a relatively marginal venture. This is perhaps striking if we consider Bateson's seminal research and his sound past in ethnography (Krause, 2003), the overall welcoming of qualitative research methodologies (Burck, 2005;Gilgun, 2005Gilgun, , 2012Singh, 2011), and the existence of "hybrid" attempts for a discursive analysis of family therapy sessions (Troemel-Ploetz, 1977;Watzlawick et al, 1967). On the other hand, the majority of the existing DA and CA studies of psychotherapy use transcribed family therapy sessions as their data (Avdi & Georgaca, 2007).…”

Adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease feel ambivalent towards their parents’ concern for them

“…Our use of an open discussion format and an introductory open-ended question of the circular type may have contributed to the development of the new typology we have constructed of youngsters' understanding of their parents' care. While this format is commonly used in clinical family therapy, it is rare in qualitative illness research (11).…”

“…According to the participant's response to the first question more penetrating questions were then posed. The circular question format, asking one person about somebody else, was chosen to emphasize the purpose of the study (11). The more penetrating questions then delved further into these relationship issues rather than investigating the participant's experience of themselves, their illness and situation.…”