“You should see me on the inside”: Researching the post-stroke mental health of a male professor of sport.

Abstract

Variable, and therefore miserable condition of man! This minute I was well, and am ill, this minute. … We study health, and we deliberate upon our meats, and drink, and air, and exercises, and we hew and we polish every stone that goes to that building; and so our health is a long and a regular work: but in a minute a cannon batters all, overthrows all, demolishes all: a sickness unprevented for all our diligence, unsuspected for all our curiosity; nay, underserved… . O miserable condition of man! (Donne, 1999 [1624], p. 3) This research note offers an original contribution to methodological discussion qua mental health, and associated emotionality, within the workplace of sport academia. Our focus is the post-stroke mental health of a male sociology of sport professor, and discussions are divided into two sections. The first section, which reiterates the title: ‘you should see me on the inside’, explores this statement in terms of researching the mental health of a work colleague. The second section, entitled ‘Sepp Blatter saved my life’, focuses on the tensions implicit to co-constructing knowledge of post-stroke mental health recovery.