Ethical reflexivity in qualitative research: the use of cinematographic movies as an instrument for continuous training

ABSTRACT Objectives: to analyze ethically, aesthetically and politically the cine-debate of the movie “Human”, reflecting on training of researchers in qualitative research. Methods: the debate about moral questions as the essence of humanity was based on Narrative Bioethics; the comprehensive, relational and reflective character of qualitative methods; and the ethical and social sense of qualitative researches. Results: the narratives of the experiences of morality, loaded with facts and valuations, highlighting the importance of reflexivity in all phases of the qualitative research process, from thinking about themes and research questions to fieldwork, from data analysis to the production of reports, fostering the researcher’s responsibility both in the intervention for understanding and narrating the world, and in its possible transformation. Final Considerations: cinematographic art becomes an instrument of reflexivity capable of affecting and mobilizing students, in a fusion of horizons of understanding of different universes that dialogue.

„Das ist das Leben? Ich will sterben!“

Using the method of narrative bioethics, this article analyzes Julian Schnabel’s film “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (USA/France 2007), the story of the French journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby, who was trapped in his body as the result of a cerebral infarction (Locked-in-syndrome). The ethical themes of the film are identified and evaluated as part of a public ethical discourse: euthanasia, search for identity in the disturbing experience of desease, care and compassion, spirituality and religion as dimensions of an illness narration. The results are connected with experiences of health care chaplaincy in a neurological clinic. Working with “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” in an ethical training could help doctors, nurses and therapists to reflect their care interactions and sensitize them to the dignity of neurological patients. Thereby the call for euthanasia can be reduced.