Tony Jefferson

Wendy Hollway

This is both a `how to' book and one that critically reviews many of the assumptions, claims and methods of qualitative research. Applying a psycho-social understanding of subjectivity to research practice involves conceptualising researcher and researched as co-producers of meanings in the research relationship. The authors use the notion of the "defended subject" to indicate that people will defend themselves against any anxieties in the information they provide in a research context. To interpret interviewees' responses should entail developing a method in which narratives are central, as should a strategy of interpretation in which interviewees' free associations are given precedence over narrative coherence. The author

Free Association, Narrative and the Interview Method

Doing Qualitative Research Differently

Hollway and Jefferson have updated their ground-breaking book for students and researchers looking to do qualitative research differently. The new edition critically reviews many of the assumptions, claims and methods of qualitative research and also acts as a `how to' guide to the method the authors call the Free Association Narrative Interview. In the new edition, the authors situate their arguments firmly within a tradition of psychosocial research and show how their method has developed over the last decade. The book follows this approach through the phases of empirical research practice. At each stage they use examples from their own research and end with an extended case study which demonstrates the value of their method in producing a psychosocial research subject; that is, one with socially-imbued depth, complexity and biographical uniqueness.

A Psychosocial Approach

Julian Henriques

Couze Venn

Valerie Walkerdine

Cathy Urwin

Changing the Subject is a classic critique of traditional psychology in which the foundations of critical and feminist psychology are laid down. Pioneering and foundational, it is still the groundbreaking text crucial to furthering the new psychology in both teaching and research. Now reissued with a new foreword describing the changes which have taken place over the last few years, Changing the Subject will continue to have a significant impact on thinking about psychology and social theory.

Psychology, Social Regulation and Subjectivity

Changing the Subject

Brid Featherstone

Children's rights, lone motherhood and the breakdown of families are all issues at the forefront of current social debate in the West, with little agreement on what constitutes good parenting, or how the needs of both mother and child are best met. The feminist contribution to this debate is particularly important in keeping in view the diverse identities of all those who provide mothering. The psychoanalytic contribution is often undervalued and misunderstood. Mothering and Ambivalence brings together authors from therapeutic, academic and social work backgrounds to discuss dependency, anxiety and gender relations within families. Drawing on extensive professional experience the contributors combine a psychoanalytic and feminist approach to mothering which transcends the polarized and simplistic political debate about women's and children's needs. They also show how such an approach can inform and improve professional practice.

Wendy Hollway

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