Interviewing in Depth: The Interactive-Relational Approach

John T. Chirban

Jun 1996 · SAGE Publications

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This is a book about deeper listening . . . that will help professionals become more sensitive and enable closer communication. . . . This book is a must for professionals. Dr. Chirban shows us both how and why we interview. Interviewing In Depth will hold an important place on my shelf. I hope you find it as warm and fascinating as I have. --Allen E. Ivey, Ed.D., A.B.P.P., Distinguished University Professor, University of Massachusetts "This sensitive, reflective, and revealing book supplies a most valuable anatomy of the "deep structure" of the personal interview, as well as remarkable insights into people who have left indelible marks on our times. Clinicians and lay readers will be both instructed and fascinated by this work." --Thomas G. Gutheil, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School Use this quote first "I hope this useful and challenging book reaches well beyond clinicians and other health professionals to anyone whose work depends upon face-to-face encounters. Its simple, yet radical message is that a successful interview is more likely to happen when collaboration, personal attributes, values, and feelings are brought and made available by both participants. Recognizing that this is precisely what professional interviewers have avoided, Dr. Chirban skillfully shows how mutual visibility can be achieved but managed: The interactive-relational approach works. Readers will love seeing it in action, especially with B.F. Skinner and Lucille Ball." --Anthony G. Barrand, Ph.D, Department of Anthropology, Boston University In Interviewing in Depth, John T. Chirban presents an innovative and powerful interviewing approach--the interactive-relational--that promises and delivers a clearer, deeper portrait of the person. By focusing on how the interviewer participates more fully in the interview, through particular interaction in the relationship he or she establishes, Chirban shows how the interviewer manages his or her personal feelings while still maintaining a professional stance. Through excerpts of interviews in journalism, oral histories, and psychohistory, Chirban draws from his work with B. F. Skinner, Lucille Ball, Sandra Day O′Connor, and patients to illustrate how the interactive-relational approach differs from more traditional techniques and applies to interviewing in the health professions, communications, and business as well as psychology.