Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

Thematic Narrative Analysis
The analysing of data to discover emerging themes can be seen as a generic research tool
within qualitative research that has generally been termed, thematic analysis. Braun and
Clarke argue that thematic analysis has emerged in the last two decades as a range of
distinctive qualitative research methods (Braun and Clarke 2006). Thematic analysis fits
within a spectrum of qualitative methodologies including: content analysis (Hsieh and
Shannon 2005); conversation analysis (Speer 2002; Hutchby and Wooffitt 2008); discourse
analysis (Wetherall, Taylor, and Yates 2001); grounded theory (Charmaz 2006);
interpretative phenomenological analysis - IPA (Smith, Larkin, and Flowers 2009);
narrative analysis (Crossley 2000; Riessman 2002) and narrative inquiry (Webster and
Mertova 2007).
The thematic narrative analysis developed and used in this research avoids: the detailed and
explicit coding techniques found in content analysis; the micro-analysis and typological
approaches of conversation and discourse analyses; the phenomenological focus of IPA; the
overarching focus of narrative analysis and the avoidance of intersubjectivity in narrative
inquiry. What it does do is to allow units of meaning, primarily words and phrases, to arise
from within the texts that have the potential to be formed into a theme. Unlike grounded
theory these units of meaning and potential themes are interpreted hermeneutically by the
narrative contexts that surround them, including that of the researcher as well as the
researched. It could be described as a form of exegesis based on the principles of textual
engagement, motif, intention and harmonization. This utilized hermeneutic principles
(developed by Ricoeur engaging with biblical texts) adapted to psychoanalytic texts created
by face-to-face interviews. These principles consist of:
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