“Then You Know How I Feel”: Empathy, Identification, and Reflexivity in FieldworkEllingson, Laura LUniversity of South Florida

Qualitative Inquiry,Voulem4,1998 429-5141998 Sage Publications, Inc.

Laura L. Ellingson Laura L. Ellingson (Ph.D., University of South Florida) is Associate Professor of Communication and Women's & Gender Studies at Santa Clara University where she teaches courses on Health Communication, Communication & Gender, Qualitative Methods, and Gender, Health & Sexuality. Her research focuses on gender in extended and chosen family networks, representation in qualitative research, and interdisciplinary teamwork in health care organizations. {A Cancer survivor (Bone)}Laura grew up in New England (and still misses it!) and now lives with her partner Glenn in the San Francisco Bay area. She is an ardent Red Sox fan, adores her cats Westley and Buttercup, takes joy in being an aunt, enjoys water aerobics and scrapbooking, and believes that chocolate is a major food group.http://www.amazon.com/Laura-L.-Ellingson/e/B001JRZPEO

Topic: Subjective and positioned nature of the researcher in ethnography

Method: Introspection by examining how a cancer survivor conducting filed work fieldwork in an oncology clinic shapes and is shaped by the experience.(Auto ethnographic)

Target: Cancer patient and survivor Theme: Learning multiple viewpoints. Goal: Understanding clinic by multiple view point.

“Although I am cured, I still struggle with chronic pain and limited use of my right leg due to the surgeries to remove the tumor and rebuild my leg. For the first time, I now enter the oncology context with no immediate implications for my own health or for that of a loved one. Yet, I do not study the patients and staff of the clinic with detachment; my own experiences as a patient filter what I see, hear, and feel” (Ellingson, Laura L 1998, 494).

What does she trying to say?How important is relating to another in field work? Would it make better field work?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwojXIf-wmY

“Any researcher could prepare him or herself by doing library research on effects of and treatments for cancer. However, having the knowledge embedded in my mind is different. I learned the information gradually and painfully as I progressed through my treatment; my body remembers the drug Adriamycin, not just my brain” (Northrup, 1994; Ellingson, Laura L 1998, 496).

What are some benefits of self-relating and false? If you are diagnose with cancer, which advice would you take it more seriously? A doctor? or A Cancer survivor ?

“One patient, upon being told that I am a cancer survivor, looked me in the eyes and said simply, “then you know how I feel.” Another patient, a woman with a recurrence of breast cancer, responded similarly: "then you’ve been there yourself, you know,” she said to me intently. Empathy is an incredible responsibility” (Ellingson, Laura L 1998, 500). Does personal experience always works the best in research studies? How important is ‘Empathy’ in fieldwork? Is it always better to experience it and what are some biases?