Doing ethnography in disease and care. A self-narrative approach
Giuseppe Tacconi
The author, who has just been diagnosed with a brain cancer, provides a detailed ethnographic account of this experience that has led him to watch and listen with particular intensity to voices and contexts. In the article, the subjectivity of the researcher and the object are addressed and it is given an account of how the various subjects involved live the experience of illness and cure. It is an intertwining between an ethnography of care practices and a self-ethnography, understood as a narrative of one’s own story of illness. After a brief description of his experience of illness and care and of the context in which the care is being carried out, the author will describe his interactions with health care personnel and the influence of such relationships.
Keywords
Ethnography, self-ethnography, narrative methods, qualitative research, medical practice.