„I, a psychologist, tell you”: The Ontological Narrative of a „Solidarity” Refugee Cover Image

„Ja, jako psycholog, mówię ci…”: ontologiczna narracja uchodźcy opozycyjnego z epoki „Solidarności”
„I, a psychologist, tell you”: The Ontological Narrative of a „Solidarity” Refugee

Author(s): Mary Patrice Erdmans
Contributor(s): Alicja Żuchelkowska (Translator)
Subject(s): Social Theory, Migration Studies, Asylum, Refugees, Migration as Policy-fields
Published by: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
Keywords: life story method; refugee migration; organizational psychology; subjective agency;

Summary/Abstract: Using the life story method first introduced in The Polish Peasant, this paper analyzes the life story of a „Solidarity” refugee, positioning the subjective standpoint at the center of analysis and interpreting social action as both agentic and responsive to objective conditions. The ontological narrative in his life story is plotted through a professional schema. He defined the turning points in his life as intentionally driven by his motivation to be an organizational psychologist: his opposition within the communist system; the reason for his internment during martial law; the choice of where to emigrate; and the decision to return to Poland. He constructed a coherent narrative defined by volitional reactions to changing situations. In the life story method, subjective perceptions encode objective conditions allowing us to analyze the interactions between the self and society.

  • Issue Year: 2019
  • Issue No: 47
  • Page Range: 119-141
  • Page Count: 23
  • Language: Polish
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