He asked about my research interests and it was so nice to have someone ask this question who actually wanted to know the answer and could hear the answer even in my muddled articulation. And even better I said something to him I didn't know I thought. I talked about a book I'd read years ago and how much it had resonated with me and how I'd love to do something along the same lines. I didn't recognise it as a lead, as a way I could learn more about what methodology I'm most drawn to until I said it to him.
The book is 'The Burden of Sympathy - How Families Cope with Mental Illness' by David A. Karp. I've come home and looked back over it again tonight. For me when I first stumbled upon it at the local bookstore and took it all in it was incredibly healing and validating that someone had captured some of what I'd been through... and not in a sanitised or sensationalised way ... just really how it was.
From just a quick look into his approach this evening he is a sociologist who combines ethnographic research, in-depth interviewing and his own personal experiences. I really want to understand more about how personal experiences can be included in a research approach so it's nice to find (or re-find) Karp's work as an example of where it has been done really well.
Have you done any research that includes personal experience as part of the methological approach? Or do you know of other good examples of this?
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