Abstract
In this article I discuss my interviewexperiences as joint constructions with Finnishparents whose children had been diagnosed withcancer. In doing so both the interviewer andinterviewees became engaged as anxious``defended subjects'' in an intersubjectivity ofacknowledging but unable to talk of ``how itreally is'' to have a child diagnosed withcancer. This appeared as tensions between overttalk and covert emotions. In the overt talk theparents underlined the manageable aspects ofthe illness. The speechless and painful part ofthe illness experience appeared as covertemotions that the interviewer was able torecognise and contain. Only when both the overttalk and the covert emotions were taken intoaccount did it open up a more comprehensive wayto understand the depth of the illnesssuffering. This is illustrated with oneinterview as an example.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Baruch, G. 1981 Moral Tales: Parents' Stories of Encountering with the Health Professionals. Sociology of Health and Illness 3(3): 275–295.
Bell, S. 2000 Experiencing Illness in/and Narrative. In Handbook of Medical Sociology. C. Bird, P. Conrad, and A. Fremont, eds, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.
Bion, W. 1962 Learning from Experience. London: Heinemann.
Boyer, L.B. 1999 Countertransference and Regression. Northvale, New Jersey/London: Jason Aronson.
Bury, M. 1991 The Sociology of Chronic Illness: A Review of Research and Prospects. Sociology of Health and Illness 13: 4.
Charmaz, K. 1991 Good Days Bad Days: The Self in Chronic Illness and Time. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press.
Chodorow, N. 1989 Feminism and Psychoanalytic Theory. New Haven: Yale Unversity Press.
Conrad, P. 1989 Qualitative Research on Chronic Illness: A Commentary on Method and Conceptual Development. Social Science and Medicine 30(11): 1257–1263.
Davis, F. 1963 Passage Through Crisis. Bobs-Merril Company.
Finlay, A. 1996 Teenage Pregnancy, Romantic Love and Social Science: An Uneasy Relationship. In Health and the Sociology of Emotions. V. James and J. Gabe, eds., pp. 79–96. Oxford UK: Blackwell.
Frank, A. 1995 The Wounded Storyteller. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
1991 At the Will of the Body. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Freud, S. 1938 Splitting of the Ego in the Defence Process. In The Standard Edition of the Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol 23. James Strachey, ed., pp. 271–278. London: Hogarth Press.
Fyhr, G. 1990 Den “förbjudna” sorgen: om förväntningar och sorg kring det handikappade barnet (The “Forbidden” Mourning: About Expectations and Mourning of a Disabled Child). Svenska förening för psykisk hälsovård: Monografieserie 17.
Giddens, A. 1991 Modernity and Self-Identity. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Good, B., H. Herrera, M.-J. DelVecchio Good, and J. Cooper 1985 Reflexivity, Countertransference and Clinical Ethnography: A Case from a Psychiatric Cultural Consultation Clinic. In Physicians of Western Medicine. Hahn and Gaines, eds, Boston: D. Reidel.
Glaser, B. and A. Strauss 1967 The Discovery of Grounded Theory. New York: Aldine De Gruyter.
Gubrium, J.F. and J.A. Holstein 1997 The New Language of Qualitative Method. New York: Oxford University Press.
Gustavsson, A. 1989 Samhällsideal och föräldra-ansvar (Societal Ideal and Parental Responsibility). Stockholm: Almqvist & Wicksell.
Hinshelwood, R.D. 1991 A Dictionary of Kleinian Thought. London: Free Association Books.
Hollway, W. and T. Jefferson 2000 Doing Qualitative Research Differently – Free Association, Narrative and the Interview Method. Sage Publications. London: Thousand Oaks.
Klein, M. 1988a Love, Guilt and Reparation and Other Works, 1921–1945. London: Virago.
1988b Envy and Gratitude and Other Works, 1946–1963. London: Virago.
Kvale, S. 1999 The Psychoanalytic Interview as Qualitative Research. Qualitative Inquiry 5(1): 87–113.
Lillrank, A. 1998 Living One Day at a Time – Parental Dilemmas of Managing the Experience and the Care of Childhood Cancer. (Doctoral dissertation) Stakes research report 89. Jyväskylä: Gummerus.
1999 Samspelet mellan verbal och icke-verbal interaction i forskningsintervjuer. (The Interplay between Verbal and Non-verbal Interaction in Research Interviews.) Sosiologia 36(2): 95–108.
Lupton, D. 1996 Your Life in Their Hands: Trust in the Medical Encounter. In Health and the Sociology of Emotions. V. James and J. Gabe, eds, pp. 157–172. Oxford UK: Blackwell Publishers.
Mishler, E.G. 1986 Research Interviewing: Context and Narrative. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Minsky, R. 1998 Psychoanalysis and Culture – Contemporary States of Mind. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press.
Oakley, A. 1991 Women and Health. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Silverman, D. 1985 Qualitative Methodology and Sociology. England: Gover.
Strauss, A. and B.G. Glaser, eds. 1975 Chronic Illness and Quality of Life. St. Louis: Mosby.
Reis, R. 1998 Resonating to Pain: Introspection as a Tool in Medical Anthropology ‘At Home’. Anthropology and Medicine 5: 3.
Riessman, C. Kohler 1993 Narrative Analysis. Newbury Park: Sage.
n.d. Analysis of Personal Narratives. In Handbook of Interviewing. J.F. Gubrium and J.A. Holstein, eds, London: Sage. In press.
Wikan, U. 1992 Beyond the Words: The Power of Resonance. American Ethnologist. 19: 3.
Winnicott, D.W. 1967 The Location of Cultural Experience. In Playing and Reality. Harmondsworth, U.K.: Penguin Books, 1974.
1990 The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment. London: Karnac Books.
Zola, I.K. 1982 Missing Pieces: A Chronicle of Living With a Disability. Philadelphia: Temple.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lillrank, A. The Tension between Overt Talk and Covert Emotions in Illness Narratives: Transition from Clinician to Researcher. Cult Med Psychiatry 26, 111–127 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015285013489
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015285013489