Conference Agenda

Background and Aim: People living with brain tumors face enduring uncertainty and a lack of understanding from others (Janda et al., 2006). Drawing on Dialogical Self Theory (Hermans, 2001), this study examines how "being understood" is interactionally achieved during life-story interviews and how these dialogical processes reshape illness narratives.

Method: Five cases were selected from life-story interviews with fifteen Japanese adults with diverse brain tumor histories. Using Dialogical Narrative Analysis (Frank, 2011), interview data were analyzed as multivoiced performances, focusing on turn-by-turn positioning and the evolving interviewer–interviewee relationship. A distinctive analytic feature was the interviewer's partial "insider" positioning—as a bereaved family member of a father who died from glioblastoma—alongside researcher and trainee clinical psychologist positions. This positionality was treated as both an analytic resource and an ethical challenge.

Results: Findings reveal that "being understood" is co-constructed through layered relational frames. Interviewees and the interviewer navigated multiple positions (e.g., patient–family member, friend-like, client-counselor), collaboratively generating new narrative possibilities. In this dialogical space, re-telling reopened previously closed experiences, rendering unmet psychosocial needs more speakable. Intertextual traces (e.g., blogs, SNS, mails) further supported ongoing self-reinterpretation beyond the interview encounter. Crucially, moments of recognition—when interviewees experienced being received—were linked to deeper reflection and a renewed sense of self-coherence. While the interviewer's partial insider stance fostered safety and depth of disclosure, it also required careful management of potential invasiveness.

Conclusions: This study suggests that dialogical interviewing can function as a care-like moment that facilitates narrative reconstruction. Methodologically, integrating shifting I-positions and wider interactional trajectories (including pre/post-interview exchanges and intertextual traces) offers a way to enrich qualitative data and to connect DST with narrative approach in health research. Ethically, the strategic use of partial insider positioning invites deeper dialogue but necessitates sustained reflexivity to manage mutual bias.