Analysing discourse psycho-socially

Abstract

This chapter describes an approach to psycho-social research which combines discursive psychology, a form of discourse analysis, with a psychodynamic approach. The concept of positioning provides a valuable link between discursive psychology and a psychoanalytically informed analysis of the defended subject, since both approaches are concerned with subject positions and positioning of others. Positioning in psychoanalysis is achieved through processes such as projective identification. A key function of language is self-presentation, which may include presenting oneself in a favourable light or someone else in a less favourable light. Frosh and Emerson have written about the combination of analytic methodologies based on discourse analysis and psychoanalysis. Hollway’s use of discursive psychology has been specifically developed out of an interest in extending methods used in social psychology into the study of discourse. In discursive psychology, there is a greater acceptance of agency, although it is recognized that people may be positioned by others either consciously or unconsciously.