Silver lining

Silver Lining looks at non-traditional research outputs, with specific focus on transference and the relational self. It follows parent Meredith through financial and emotional predicament and how she transfers emotional conflict to her son Lochie, climaxing in this incident in a slap. While Lochie does not exhibit the mode of transference where he in turn slaps his playmates, we see him mildly act up at the onset of the story when he answers Meredith back. True to basic motivations for attachment that encourage most children to love their parents (Berenson and Andersen 2006, p.1510), Lochie's affections toward his mother do not shift despite the slap. The story draws upon ethnographic research where, like Meredith, I—the author—share single parenthood to a young boy eager to discover the world. On rethinking ethnography, Conquergood says: ‘Ethnography's distinctive research method, participant-observation field-work, privileges the body as a site of knowing.' (1991) Approaching Silver Lining from the lens of a writer, I also found myself acting out roles as a performer and a researcher, a personal and impersonal embodiment. Drawing upon my own interaction with my child, it was easier to relay Lochie, to mentally experience the little boy and his relationship with his mother. This gave certain bias to the direction of the story, for example Meredith's remorse after the slap. This aftermath would be a natural occurrence to me had it happened in real life, a consequence that may not come natural to another writer without bold inherent ties as a carer. Such a writer may have chosen to explore a singular direction toward, maybe, escalation of child abuse. Writing Silver Lining brought along a cathartic effect, thanks to its ethnographic fashioning.