Cancer the Bogeyman and Me: Reflexivity and emotion in 'end of life' research

Citation

Harris FM (2008) Cancer the Bogeyman and Me: Reflexivity and emotion in 'end of life' research. Anthropology in Action, 15 (1), pp. 5-13. https://doi.org/10.3167/aia.2008.150103

Abstract
This paper explores the embodied nature of training in social anthropology and reveals how, while working in multidisciplinary teams and drawing on research methods and approaches more commonly associated with other disciplines, one might still be ‘outed’ in one’s interpretation and analysis. I draw on the experience of working on a project exploring methodological issues and challenges to conducting research with terminally ill cancer patients to reveal the importance of situating ourselves as researchers firmly within the prejudices of our own societies. While personal experience of losing a parent to cancer should have alerted me to other ways of seeing cancer, I was nevertheless obliged to confront sociocultural constructions of cancer and recognise them as my own. Through understanding the power of ‘imagined experience’, I gained further insight into how intersubjectivity and reflexivity are crucial to the research process.

Keywords
emotion; reflexivity; cancer experience; intersubjectivity; multidisciplinary research; Cancer research; End-of-life care; Intersubjectivity; Interpersonal communication Case studies

Journal
Anthropology in Action: Volume 15, Issue 1