Using Psychoanalysis in Qualitative Research: Countertransference-Informed Researcher Reflexivity and Defence Mechanisms in Two Interviews about Migration

Abstract

Based on psychoanalytically informed research methodology, an unstructured interview technique was developed in which participants told their stories and freely associated. The content of the study was the experience of migration for two participants who had emigrated to a South American capital city. Data analysis involved two linked processes: a) immersion in, and thematic sorting of, recordings and transcripts and b) analysis of countertransference feelings aroused in the researcher both immediately after the interview and on reviewing the recordings. Based on the theory of projective identification, this enabled defence mechanisms to be identified: strong feelings in the researcher were considered as possibly reflecting subjects' warded-off feelings in relation to particular topics. The most prominent defence mechanisms to emerge were splitting and compulsive altruism. The research provides further evidence that a psychoanalytically informed methodology yields a research environment open to identification and analysis of unconscious processes.