Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

In March 2018, researcher Carolyn Ellis video recorded a short interview session with participant Jerry Rawicki for the purpose of describing the relationship that developed between them during their 9-year research collaboration. An excerpt from this interview is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj6IZx5vzlk. The authors present this video excerpt, the edited conversation from it, and discussion of what took place to explore the role that compassion might play in an interview relationship. They also suggest that in compassionate interviews, interruptions might be characterized as opportunities to know and participate in the life of the interviewee, rather than viewed as disruptive. Representing the perspective of the researcher and participant, this article demonstrates how compassionate relationships happen in real-life situations.

Keywords

autoethnography ethnographies methodologies Holocaust survivors compassionate interviewing mindful qualitative research interview relationships

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Casey

(1987). Remembering: A phenomenological study. Indiana University Press.

Easton

McComish

J. F.

Greenberg

(2000). Avoiding common pitfalls in qualitative data collection and transcription. Qualitative Health Research, 10, 703–707.

Ellis

(2017a). Compassionate research: Interviewing and storytelling from a relational ethics of care. In Goodson

Sikes

Andrews

(Eds.), The Routledge international handbook on narrative and life history (pp. 431–445). Routledge.

Ellis

(2017b). Manifesting compassionate autoethnographic research focusing on others. International Review of Qualitative Research, 10(1), 54–61.

Ellis

Patti

(2014). With heart: Compassionate interviewing and storytelling with Holocaust survivors. Storytelling, Self, Society: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Storytelling Studies, 10(1), 93–118.

Ellis

Rawicki

(2013). Collaborative witnessing of survival during the Holocaust: An exemplar of relational autoethnography. Qualitative Inquiry, 19, 366–380.

Ellis

Rawicki

(2015a, August 12). Behind the wall [Video file]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9es0TQkj8s

Ellis

Rawicki

(2015b). Collaborative witnessing and sharing authority in conversations with Holocaust survivors. In High

(Ed.), Beyond testimony and trauma: Oral history in the aftermath of mass violence (pp. 170–191). University of British Columbia Press.

Ellis

(Producer) Schoen

(Producer/Director). (2016). Groaning from the soul [Video file]. https://vimeo.com/158748870/3851d85549

10.

Greenspan

Bolkosky

(2006). When is an interview an interview? Notes from listening to Holocaust survivors. Poetics Today, 2, 431–449.

11.

Hyde

M. J.

(2018). The interruption that we are: The health of the lived body, narrative, and public moral argument. University of South Carolina Press.

12.

Patti

C. J.

(2013). Compassionate storytelling with Holocaust survivors: Cultivating dialogue at the end of an era [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of South Florida.

13.

Patti

C. J.

(2015). Sharing “a big kettle of soup”: Compassionate listening with a Holocaust survivor. In High

(Ed.), Beyond testimony and trauma: Oral history in the aftermath of mass violence (pp. 192–211). University of British Columbia Press.

14.

Rawicki

Ellis

(2011). Lechem hara (bad bread) Lechem tov (good bread): Survival and sacrifice during the Holocaust. Qualitative Inquiry, 17, 155–157.

15.

Rubin

Greenspan

(2006). Reflections: Auschwitz, memory, and a life recreated. Paragon.

16.

Tillmann-Healy

(2003). Friendship as method. Qualitative Inquiry, 9, 729–749.

Compassionate Interviewing: Meta-Communicating Care and Embracing Interruptions

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References