The importance of relational thinking in the practice of psycho-social research: ontology, epistemology, methodology and ethics

The object relations and relational psychoanalytic traditions can have a profound effect on the practices of social science research and, in the UK, this is taking place largely in the tradition that has come to be called ‘psycho-social’. My own research practice has been moving in this direction for some time and it has become evident to me that the use of psychoanalytic concepts that derive from the object relations and relational traditions have radical effects on every aspect of research. By every aspect, I refer first to the substantive analysis of phenomena that have social and psychological aspects (which surely includes most phenomena of interest to social science). I also refer to the trio of principles informing research that I refer to in the title of this chapter as ontology (how the person as subject of research is theorised), epistemology (how the status of the knowledge generation process is understood) and methodology (how these together inform how the researcher goes about finding out). Not in the title, but also implicated, is the subject of research ethics. After an outline of the project that I use as an illustration, subsequent sections of this chapter deal with ontology, epistemology, methodology and research ethics

Unfamiliar habits: James and the ethics and politics of self-experimentation

The article critically surveys William James's understanding of habit in the light of his wider ethical and political concerns, showcasing its import for a contemporary philosophical usage of the term

Rights Talk and Patient Subjectivity: The Role of Autonomy, Equality and Participation Norms

Patients themselves have transformed the role of the patient in the health care system, making it far more complex than it ever has been before. As a result, the conceptual root of our contemporary understandings of “patient” is an assumption of autonomous subjectivity, i.e., of an individual aware of and capable of acting on her choices for medical care. The Symposium on Patient-Centered Health Law and Ethics of which this Article is a part considers the most recent stage in this evolution of meanings: the concept of patient-centeredness, with its implication of provider deference to the patient’s perspective. Throughout the process of an evolving patient identity, law has played a central constitutive role. In the 1960s and 1970s, the law of informed consent brought the concept of patient autonomy into the constellation of metanorms shaping the idealized doctor-patient relationship. From that process, the patient as a rights-bearing subject emerged. From the 1970s to the 1990s, women’s health advocates and AIDS patients brought a new level of militancy to the patient role, undertaking representation on their own behalf and on behalf of future patients with the same disease. Their efforts produced lasting legal changes in such fundamental medical endeavors as clinical research. In the last two decades, the rise of managed care and the growing shift of financial burdens and risk onto the patient have been reflected in the model of patient as consumer, market actor, and self-insurer – a change also inscribed by and into law. As health law and policy scholars increasingly focus on patient-centeredness, these new patient identities provide a starting point for understanding just who the patient at the center is, what her roles will be in the health-care system as a whole, and what her reasonable expectations of that system will encompass

Lawyers as Upholders of Human Dignity (When They Aren\u27t Busy Assaulting It)

David Luban argues in this lecture that the moral foundation of the lawyer\u27s profession lies in the defense of human dignity-and the chief moral danger facing the profession arises when lawyers assault human dignity rather than defend it. The concept of human dignity has a rich philosophical tradition, with some philosophers identifying human dignity as a metaphysical property of individuals-a property such as having a soul, or possessing autonomy. Luban argues instead that human dignity is a relational property of the dignifier and the dignified, emphasizing that assaulting human dignity humiliates the victim. Lawyers honor the human dignity of others by protecting them against humiliations, and defile that dignity by subjecting them to humiliations. The lecture develops these ideas through four traditional issues in legal ethics: the right of criminal defendants to an advocate, the duty of confidentiality, paternalism of attorneys toward their clients, and pro bono service

The researcher’s erotic subjectivities : epistemological and ethical challenges

Aquest article pretén aprofundir en la qüestió de la rellevància potencial i la importància d’incloure reflexions sobre el desig i la sexualitat de la persona que investiga en els resultats de la seva recerca. Analitzem críticament l’excepcionalització de les interaccions sexual(itzade) s en la recerca: quines són les raons per les quals el contacte sexual(itzat) entre la persona que investiga i les persones participants es considera no ètic o problemàtic, i quines són les conseqüències del fet d’evitar la intimitat —o l’(auto)censura en relació amb el debat— en el treball de camp? Aquest debat ens porta a defensar una aproximació ètica alternativa a la prescrita pels protocols ètics institucionals. L’aproximació ètica que plantegem es basa en la premissa que la producció de coneixement mai no es dona fora dels nostres cossos i que la relació de recerca no és fonamentalment diferent de cap altre tipus de relació. El que proposem és una ètica relacional de la recerca que creï espais per al debat obert i en diàleg amb altres persones sobre les conseqüències (potencials) de les nostres accions com a investigadors/es/éssers humans en unes relacions d’asimetria de poder canviants.This paper aims to deepen the conversation about the potential relevance and importance of including reflection on the desire and sexuality of the researcher in research outputs. We critically scrutinise the exceptionalisation of sexual(ised) interactions in research: why is sexual(ised) contact between researchers and participants considered unethical or problematic, and what are the consequences of the avoidance of—and/or the (self-)censorship with regard to discussin —intimacy in the field? This discussion leads us to argue for an alternative ethical approach than that prescribed by institutional ethical protocols. The ethical approach that we envision is based on the premise that knowledge production never occurs apart from our bodies and that a research relationship is not fundamentally different from any other human relationship. What we propose is a relational research ethics that creates space for discussing openly and in dialogue with others the (potential) consequences of our actions as researchers/human beings within relationships of shifting power asymmetry

Critical Thinking Activities and the Enhancement of Ethical Awareness: An application of a ‘Rhetoric of Disruption’ to the undergraduate general education classroom

This article explores how critical thinking activities and assignments can function to enhance students’ ethical awareness and sense of civic responsibility. Employing Levinas’s Othercentered theory of ethics, Burke’s notion of ‘the paradox of substance’, and Murray’s concept of ‘a rhetoric of disruption’, this article explores the nature of critical thinking activities designed to have students question their (often taken-for-granted) moral assumptions and interrogate their (often unexamined) moral identities. This article argues that such critical thinking activities can trigger a metacognitive destabilization of subjectivity, understood as a dialectical prerequisite (along with exposure to otherness) for increased ethical awareness. This theoretical model is illustrated through a discussion of three sample classroom activities designed to destabilize moral assumptions and identity, thereby clearing the way for a heightened acknowledgment of otherness. In so doing, this article provides an alternative (and dialectically inverted) strategy for addressing one of the central goals of many General Education curricula: the development of ethical awareness and civic responsibility. Rather than introducing students to alternative perspectives and divergent cultures with the expectation that heightened moral awareness will follow, this article suggests classroom activities and course assignments aimed at disrupting moral subjectivity and creating an opening in which otherness can be more fully acknowledged and the diversity of our world more fully appreciated