(Inter)Subjectivity In The Research Pair: Countertransference And Radical Reflexivity In Organizational Research

Destabilizing what we know, a central tenet of critical reflexive research, is difficult without makingunconsciousassumptions, beliefs, and emotions available for thought, articulation, and questioning. Articulating countertransference, a technique borrowed from psychoanalysis, informs our efforts to raise awareness of theunconsciousdimensions of field experiences and thus foster radical reflexivity. Bridging the literatures on reflexivity and relational psychoanalysis, we develop a new four-dimension method of writing and analyzing fieldnotes-observing, capturing the story, articulating countertransference, anddeveloping interpretations-that foregrounds unconscious dimensions of experience. We make visible the fieldnotes we generated during an organizational study. In doing so, we demonstrate how a research pair working together in real time can become aware of their intersubjective processes, fold together multiple dimensions of experience (consciousandunconscious), and co-construct a shared understanding of organizational dynamics. This article is valuable because it demonstrates how psychoanalytic concepts can be mobilized by psychoanalytically informed, but not formally trained, organizational researchers.