Creating a containing space for analysing data: roles and responsibilities in the Many Minds process

Abstract

This paper forms part of a Special issue on a psychosocial method of group data analysis characterised as Many Minds. In this paper, we aim to democratise and render transparent the Many Minds process and outline its affordances as a method for analysing evocative and provocative data. The paper begins with an acknowledgement of our own positionalities. We move on to explore the specific context in which our experiences were located, how the Many Minds approach operated in this space and the methods we devised for writing this paper. Through sharing our understanding and experiences in three discrete Many Minds roles - the facilitator, the sharer, and the participant - we reflect on the characteristics, responsibilities and practices associated with each of them. We consider how attending to these roles is pivotal to the creation of a containing and generative environment that maximises the opportunity for the unbearable to be borne, the unthinkable to be thought and for unconscious knowledge to be surfaced and voiced. Attending to these roles, we argue, is essential for a space to be created in which participants’ research experiences can be honoured, respected and better understood. Many Minds offers a generative approach that has rich potential for researchers, including practitioner researchers, who seek deeply reflexive psycho-social methods for data analysis.