Abstract
BackgroundThis paper elucidates a methodological approach to interview text that tries to acknowledge the psychosocial nature of disability and thereby ensuring that empirical work in disability studies complements theoretical arguments already developed.ObjectivesThe aim of this study is to outline a psychosocial conceptualisation of maternal subjectivity in relation to childhood disability and to apply this conceptualisation as an analytic tool to segments of an interview with a mother of a child with physical and developmental disabilities.MethodDrawing on psychoanalysis and attachment literature alongside critical social psychology we take readers through the analysis of an interview extract with a particular mother. Through a fine grained analysis, we demonstrate the value of attending to the affective processes in and around the text rooted in the particular intersubjective exchange (‘here and how’) of the interview and the particular socio-historical context (‘there and then’) in which the mother, child and researcher are located.FindingsThe reading draws attention to discourses that position this particular mother and her children in particular ways while also pointing to investments in these discourses such that these discourses are not purely social but play affective functions.ConclusionThis paper demonstrates the value of using multiple lenses to read the text, seeking to understand what is going on from within each lens (discursive/social, interpersonal, intrapsychic), while also seeking to disrupt this understanding as we take up the position of a different lens. This approach enables us to hold onto the complexity and locatedness of maternal subjectivity for mothers of children with disabilities.
Highlights
Our approach in this study is, firstly, to develop a rationale for a psychosocial conceptualisation of disability by providing a brief outline and critique of two distinct areas of research or theorising relevant to childhood disability – the social model of disability and the attachment literature
In the second part of the study, we briefly outline a conceptualisation of subjectivity as psychosocial before thickening this description in the context of childhood disability through its application to a reading of interview segments with a mother of a disabled child
While not always comfortable, drawing attention to these moments is important in order to present mothers of disabled children as subjects with complex and ambiguous feelings that dynamically shift throughout the interview from acceptance to non-acceptance, from loving to rejecting
Summary
Our approach in this study is, firstly, to develop a rationale for a psychosocial conceptualisation of disability by providing a brief outline and critique of two distinct areas of research or theorising relevant to childhood disability – the social model of disability and the attachment literature. Such an emphasis has resulted in the subjectivities of disabled people and of caregivers of http://www.ajod.org disabled children (the focus of this study) remaining relatively empty, contributing to the stereotypes that the social model of disability works so hard to challenge.
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