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Abstract

This article reflects on a project in which the author guided several physicians as they wrote their first autoethnographic research articles, which were then presented at the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry in 2011. Revisiting three of the physicians’ stories, the article articulates the significance of having physicians—scientists by training—engage autoethnography as an emotional, literary, poetic, and embodied practice. The author discusses the limitations of the “bridge” metaphor to capture the full impact of this project and other autoethnographic efforts and argues instead for the “rhizome” as more descriptive of the multiple, messy, boundary-crossing connections that are generated through autoethnographic writing and performance.

Keywords

medical education embodiment narrative medicine Deleuze

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Physicians’ Stories

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