Addiction and Recovery: The Case for Subjective

¶ … Addiction and Recovery: The case for subjective accounts -- Larkin & Griffiths

The Wounded Healer: A phenomenological investigation of the recovering substance abuse counselor -- Ham

This article sought to provide an understanding of the interconnections between self, identity and addiction through the use of qualitative methods. The authors argue that in order to truly understand the process and experience of addiction, it is necessary to incorporate subjective experiences into the research process that allow for a greater inquiry into the lived experiences, feelings, and concepts of self and identity as displayed by individuals coping with addiction. The authors employed Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to analyze observational data that was collected in a residential treatment facility. Traditionally IPA has been used with interview data, and the authors sought to extend the usefulness of this methodology to observational data. The observational data was collected by the first author of the paper, who sat in on group therapy sessions, staff consultations, and other day-to-day activities and proceedings at a residential addiction treatment facility. IPA allowed the authors to create a thematic analysis of the individual experiences of the patients receiving addictions treatment at the facility. The focus was on how the patients viewed themselves and their own sense of self and identity in relation to their experiences addiction and the process of recovery.

Article 2:

This article sought to develop a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of substance abuse counselors who are themselves recovery addicts. To do so, the author explored specific constructs that were relevant to the lives of recovery counselors, such as self-disclosure to clients, countertransference, the role of spirituality and the meaning behind being an addict and a counselor. The authors argued that a qualitative method was appropriate given their aim of creating a deeper understanding of the meaning in being a recovery addict that is also an addictions counselor, and how the counselors perceive this issue and their own personal experiences within the context of helping others. The key focus on a search for meaning and understanding led the author to choose a phenomenological approach to the study. The study gathered data by using interviews with addictions counselors who were also recovering addicts. The phenomenological approach was deemed the best qualitative method given that the authors sought to understand a phenomenon from the perspective of the individuals living the experience (the counselors). It is believed that such an approach can add a level of genuineness to a research study that cannot be achieved through more empirical investigations that reduce experiences to numbers, and that focus on trends of a sample vs. The lived experiences of each individual.

Comment:

Both of these articles employed a qualitative research methodology to the topic of addictions and recovery. More specifically, both employed aspects of a phenomenological inquiry in an attempt to develop a deeper and more genuine understanding of the lived experiences of the subjects within the study. One of the strengths of this approach is that the authors in both papers were able to highlight the individual experiences of participants, as opposed to focusing solely on the meaning derived from viewing the sample as a whole. Additionally, the authors were able to develop more nuanced understandings concerning their topics of inquiry that would not be achieved through traditional empirical methods of inquiry. Despite this, the authors were still able to draw generalized conclusions by drawing out themes of similarity in experience between participants, and in many respects, these are findings that likely would not be easily uncovered through empirical methods. Both authors note that previous research in these areas have made use of empirical methods, which do have their strengths. For example, neither of these articles can make arguments that their findings confidently generalize to the greater population. The phenomenological approach is very in-depth and it would be labour intensive and cost prohibitive to conduct large-scale studies with representative samples using such methods. Despite this, the use of such methods can be helpful in drawing our attention to specific issues, which can then be further investigated using empirical methods at a later date. Without the use of qualitative measures initially, it is possible that some of these themes or important issues would be missed altogether and such empirical investigations would never know "where to look" to examine such topics further. While the studies each used a different approach to phenomenological inquiry, both used the approach to provide a deeper understanding of the topic they were examining.