Like the sunrise, the awesomeness of Lynda Barry is a reliable phenomenon, and I encourage you to read about it in a piece in today’s New York Times. I do want to quote one specific bit because I think it has direct application to three things that are important to me as a researcher. Here’s the excerpt:

[Barry] told a story about the neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran, who helps patients experiencing phantom-limb pain. Barry discussed one patient who felt that his missing left hand was clenched in a fist and could never shake the discomfort — could never “unclench” it.

So Ramachandran used a mirror box — a compartment into which the patient could insert his right hand and see it reflected at the end of his left arm. “And Ramachandran said, ‘Open your hands.’ And the patient saw this” — Barry opened two clenched fists in unison. “That’s what I think images do.

            “I think that in the course of human life,” she continued softly, “we have events that cause” — she clenched her fist and held it up, inspecting it from all angles. “Losing your parents might cause it. Or a war. Or things going bad in a family.”

So, my three important things:

1.  Images are powerful tools in helping people tell stories whether they are images participants develop themselves or images we give them to speak through. Therefore, picture sorts, collages, image banks require care in their choosing and specific curating for each study.
2. Sensitive topic research is all about that unclenching, and the left hand/right hand story is a beautiful metaphor for the power of indirect inquiry. The mirror image, rather than the thing itself, can be safer to look at but equally effective in bringing about understanding.
3.  Bring your whole clanking, scraping, leaking, glitter-stained bag of tricks with you wherever you go. Neuroscience and cartooning, conversation and crocheting, auto mechanics and algebra. You cannot rule out what will be useful either as tool or as metaphor.

(Tip o’ the hat to Jessa at bookslut.com for the original link.)