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Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and the Ethics of Body and Place: Critical Methodological Reflections

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Abstract

This article is a critical methodological reflection on the use of interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) initiated in the context of a qualitative research project on the experience of seclusion in a psychiatric setting. It addresses an explicit gap in the IPA literature to explore the ways that Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology can extend the remit of IPA for noncognitivist qualitative research projects beyond the field of health psychology. In particular, the article develops Merleau-Ponty’s understanding of the lived-body, language, and embodied speech, with specific attention to the ethical implications of body and place. It concludes with a discussion on phenomenological reflexivity and prompts a reconsideration of phenomenological methods across a wide range of qualitative research projects concerned with subjectivity and ethical practice, including critical health studies, critical bioethics, and cultural studies that employ a qualitative empirical research design.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr. Adrian Guta for his comments on earlier drafts of this paper. This work was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research [grant number 111018].

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  1. Department of English Language and Literature, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6, Canada

    Stuart J. Murray

  2. University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Dave Holmes

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Correspondence to Stuart J. Murray.

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Murray, S.J., Holmes, D. Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and the Ethics of Body and Place: Critical Methodological Reflections. Hum Stud 37, 15–30 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10746-013-9282-0

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