Paper short abstract:

I will introduce the ethnopsychoanalytical (interpretation group) approach and its epistemological benefits by exemplifying it via my research on knitting and illustrate the path from (the description of) emotional experiences to dense argumentations via ethnopsychoanalytical interpretation work.

Paper long abstract:

I would like to take this panel as an opportunity to introduce the participants and the network itself to an epistemological-methodological tool that we have introduced at our Department of Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology in Graz, Austria, in 2013. I am speaking of an ethnopsychoanalytical interpretation group headed by a professional group analyst. It is theoretically based on the theorem of transference and countertransference, here transferred from the therapeutical to a group setting. Working with the unconscious, this approach enables reflections of emotions and irritations which emerge during fieldwork and are subsequently articulated in the research diary. Freely associating research diary entries, we help uncover hidden (symbolical) meanings and thus render visible latent field and cultural logics.

In my presentation I will introduce the ethnopsychoanalytical (interpretation group) approach and its epistemological benefits by exemplifying it via my own research on knitting. Reproducing extensive diary entries as well as group interpretation minutes, I will illustrate the path from subjective descriptions of emotional experiences in research diary entries to serendipitous realisations via ethnopsychoanalytical interpretation work which ultimately lay the ground for strong arguments.