Lili’s Life: Being Summoned as a Researcher

A few years ago, I received a long, handwritten letter from a woman who had read some of my books. I did not know her, but the woman mentioned in the letter that she was 90 years old, and she wanted to correct me on a few points. Most importantly, I had complained in a book that the discipline of ps...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Human arenas: an Interdisciplinary journal of psychology, culture, and meaning culture, and meaning, 2024-03, Vol.7 (1), p.198-211
Main Author: Brinkmann, Svend
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropology
Arena of Autoethnography
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Cognitive Psychology
Psychology
Social Sciences
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Summary:A few years ago, I received a long, handwritten letter from a woman who had read some of my books. I did not know her, but the woman mentioned in the letter that she was 90 years old, and she wanted to correct me on a few points. Most importantly, I had complained in a book that the discipline of psychology in which I work has not given sufficient attention to the idea of human dignity. The woman informed me that she had been in psychoanalysis for 33 years in order to achieve human dignity, and her analyst had based his practice on this very idea. So how could I, as a professor of psychology, say that this notion was missing from psychology, when it clearly had a life in practice? Now, three years after I received this letter, I have published a book about this woman’s life, reflecting among other things on the role of dignity in our lives. This article tells the story of how a letter from a reader initiated a relationship that resulted in a published book, as I was summoned as a researcher.
ISSN:2522-5790
2522-5804
DOI:10.1007/s42087-021-00264-5