Abstract

There are compelling possibilities for the ways in which creative writing practices can inform qualitative and collaborative research projects, particularly those projects devoted to phenomenological inquiry. This article lays out a specific research methodology based on a creative writing practice that is prompted by words and phrases evocative of a research question. This practice, called “pointing,” is explained through Gadamer's notion of understanding, play, and conversation as well as Heidegger's hermeneutical process. The use of such a practice in a specific collaborative research project on therapists' experience of hopelessness is described and implications for additional projects are proposed