Reflexivity and Fantasy: Surprising Encounters From Interpretation to Interruption. (November 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lapping, Claudia
• Other Names: Kuehner Angela guest-editor.; Ploder Andrea guest-editor.; Langer Phil C. guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Qualitative inquiry. Volume 22:Number 9(2016)
• Page Start: 718
• Page End: 724
• Publication Date: 2016-11
• Subjects: fantasy -- signifier -- interruption -- affect -- language; Social sciences -- Methodology -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- Research -- Periodicals; 300.72
• DOI: 10.1177/1077800416658070
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1077-8004

Abstract

This article sets out two psychoanalytically informed conceptions of fantasy as a resource for reflexivity in research. First is the fantasy as a defensive structure that distorts our perception of reality, and the use of the researcher's affective responses as an interpretive tool. Second is the fantasy as a signifying structure that constitutes the subject's engagement in reality, foregrounding unconscious symbolic associations. These approaches are traced in the construction and analysis of interview data, exploring (a) a trajectory that interprets fantasy as a defense against difficult emotions, (b) the construction of free associations, and (c) symbolic material that disrupts the interpretation of fantasy as defense.