Abstract
Ethnographic fieldwork is an emotional research practice because of its intersubjective nature and empathic embrace of the actor’s perspective. This intersubjectivity also involves the fieldworker’s unconscious, which influences ethnographic encounters and anthropological interpretations. Two years of psychoanalysis in Argentina revealed the influence of the unconscious on my fieldwork about political violence and trauma through dream analyses and the analyst’s interventions. This understanding improved the rapport with research participants and opened an alternative road to reflexivity.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 339-353 |
| Journal | Anthropology and Humanism |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2020 |
Funding
. The fieldwork conducted for this article was made possible by research grants from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation and the National Science Foundation (BNS‐8904324). An early version was read on November 2, 2017, as a keynote address at the symposium organized in honor of Andre Gingrich’s retirement from the University of Vienna, Austria. I dedicate this article to Andre. Acknowledgments
Keywords
- Argentina
- dreams
- fieldwork
- psychoanalysis
- unconscious
