In this article, we explore how feelings permeated our qualitative research on suicide. Drawing on phenomenological theory, we argue for the epistemic and ethical importance of the feelings that emerge through research encounters, considering them to be embodied, intersubjective, and multilayered, and requiring careful interpretation through a "reflexivity of feelings." We sketch a tentative framework of the ways that we experienced feelings in our research and give three in-depth examples to illustrate some of the different layers and types of feelings we identified. We reflexively interpret these feelings and their role in our analysis and then discuss some of the ethical and methodological issues related to examining feelings in suicide research, and research more generally.
Keywords: Reflexivity; embodiment / bodily experiences; emotions / emotion work; ethics / moral perspectives; intersubjectivity; interviews; phenomenology; suicide.
© The Author(s) 2015.