Researching Sensitive Topics through Autoethnographic Means

This study argues for the utility of autoethnographic self-reflective approaches for the study of sensitive topics such as cabaret sex work, Internet pornography, codependence, and sexual addiction. Self-reflective accounts, derived from personal documents such as diary entries, interviews with significant others, personal recollections, and correspondence, constitute the primary data resource for autoethnographic research. Themes and by-themes are derived from such accounts, and they are carefully recorded and analyzed to ensure validity and reliability. Self-reflective accounts also have considerable therapeutic utility, since they can be utilized in narrative techniques to enable clients to retell, relive, and reconstruct their subjugated stories, thereby empowering them for positive change.