This article details the history, possibility, limits, and ethics of cross-cultural travel as a qualitative method in psychology. The article provides a brief overview of the ambiguous relationship between psychology and culture and develops an account of the history of travel methods in psychology. It then analyzes an exemplary case of travel research involving Medard Boss’ sojourn to India and his encounters with Indian sages. This article argues that the history of psychology is, in many ways, a history of the exiled, the dispossessed, and the traveler (e.g., Freud, Fromm, Fanon, Jahoda, Rogers, Jung, and others). The article concludes with reflections on using travel methods in an increasingly globalized world and in an ecologically sensitive way.
AtkinsonP.CoffeyA.DelamontS.LoflandJ.LoflandL. (2001). Editorial introduction. In AtkinsonP.CoffeyA.DelamontS.LoflandJ.LoflandL. (Eds.), Handbook of ethnography (pp. 1-7). London, England: Sage.
2.
BairD. (2003). Jung: A biography. New York, NY: Back Bay Books.
3.
BhatiaS. (2002). Orientalism in Euro-American and Indian psychology: Historical representations of “natives” in colonial and postcolonial contexts. History of Psychology, 5, 376-398.
4.
BossM. (1966). A psychiatrist discovers India (FreyH. A., Trans.). Calcutta, India: Rupa. (Original work published 1959)
5.
BossM. (2008). After thirty years: Preface to the fourth edition of a psychiatrist journeys to India (EldredM., Trans.). Review of Existential Psychiatry and Psychology, 27, 33-36. (Original work published 1987; Bern, Switzerland: Verlag Hans Huber)
6.
BrendtroL. K.BrokenlegM.van BockernS. (1991). The circle of courage. Beyond Behavior, 2, 5-12.
7.
BulhanH. A. (1999). Revolutionary psychiatry of Fanon. In GibsonN. (Ed.), Rethinking fanon: The continuing dialogue (pp. 141-175). New York, NY: Humanity Books.
8.
BurstonD. (1998). The wing of madness: The life and work of R. D. Laing. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
GiorgiA. (2010). Phenomenological psychology: A brief history and its challenges. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 41, 145-179.
21.
GoodB.GoodM. D. (2005). On the “subject” of culture: Subjectivity and cultural phenomenology in the work of Clifford Geertz. In GoodB.ShwederR. A. (Eds.), Clifford Geertz by his colleagues (pp. 98-107). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
22.
HansenE. (1999). Frantz Fanon: Portrait of a revolutionary. In GibsonN. (Ed.), Rethinking Fanon: The continuing dialogue (pp. 49-82). New York, NY: Humanity Books.
HoffmanE. (1988). The right to be human: A biography of Abraham Maslow. Los Angeles, CA: Jeremy P. Tarcher.
25.
HookD. (2005). A critical psychology of the postcolonial. Theory & Psychology, 15, 475-503.
26.
HookeA. E.FuchsW. W. (Eds.). (2003). Encounters with Alphonso Lingis. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
27.
JahodaM. (1992). Reflections on Marienthal and after. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 65, 355-358.
28.
JahodaM.LazarsfeldP. F.ZeiselH. (1971). Marienthal: The sociography of an unemployed community (JahodaM.LazarsfeldP. F.ZeiselH.ReginallJ.ElsaesserT. Trans.). Chicago, IL: Aldine-Atherton. (Original work published 1933)
29.
JungC. G. (1989). Memories, dreams, reflections (JafféA., Ed.; WinstonR.WinstonC., Trans.). New York, NY: Vintage Books. (Original published 1961)
30.
KayeH. L. (1993). Why Freud hated America. Wilson Quarterly, 17, 118-125.
31.
KvaleS. (1999). The psychoanalytic interview as qualitative research. Qualitative Inquiry, 5, 87-113.
32.
MillánS.GojmanS. (2000). The legacy of Fromm in Mexico. International Forum of Psychoanalysis, 9, 207-215.
33.
MillerP. J.HengstJ. A.WangS. H. (2003). Ethnographic methods: Applications from developmental cultural psychology. In CamicP. M.RhodesJ. E.YardleyL. (Eds.), Qualitative research in psychology: Expanding perspectives in methodology and design (pp. 219-242). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
34.
MontuoriA.FahimU. (2004). Cross-cultural encounter as an opportunity for personal growth. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 44, 243-265.
35.
O’HaraM. (1989). Person-centered approach as conscientização: The works of Carl Rogers and Paulo Freire. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 29, 11-35.
36.
O’HaraM. (2010). Another inconvenient truth and the developmental role for psychology in a threatened world. American Psychologist, 38, 101-119.
37.
PrashadV. (2000). The karma of brown folk. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
SaidE. (1979). Orientalism. New York, NY: Vintage Books.
40.
SegalN.TimmsE. (Eds.). (1988). Freud in exile: Psychoanalysis and its vicissitudes. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
41.
ShwederR. A. (1995). Cultural psychology: What is it? In GoldbergerN. R.VeroffJ. B. (Eds.), The culture and psychology reader (pp. 41-86). New York: New York University Press.
42.
SmithH. E.KellerA. S.LhewaD. W. (Eds.). (2007). Like a refugee camp on First Avenue: Insights and experiences from the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture. New York, NY: The Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture.
43.
SuzukiL. A.AhluwaliaM. K.MattisJ. S.QuizonC. A. (2005). Ethnography in counseling psychology research: Possibilities for application. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 52, 206-214.
44.
ThorneB.SandersP. (2013). Carl Rogers (3rd. ed.). London, England: Sage.
45.
VidichA. J.LymanS. M. (2000). Qualitative methods: Their history in sociology and anthropology. In DenzinN. K.LincolnY. S. (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 37-84). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
46.
WattersE. (2010). Crazy like us: The globalization of the American psyche. New York, NY: Free Press.
47.
WertzF. J. (1987). Meaning and research methodology: Psychoanalysis as a human science. Methods, 1, 91-135.
48.
WertzF. J. (2011). The qualitative revolution and psychology: Science, politics, and ethics. The Humanistic Psychologist, 39, 77-104.
49.
WheatlandT. (2009). The Frankfurt School in exile. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
