Professor Emeritus - University of Alberta
Van Manen, M. (1999) The pathic nature of inquiry and nursing.
In: Madjar, Irena and Walton, Jo (editors). Nursing and the Experience of Illness: Phenomenology in Practice. London: Routledge. pp. 17-35.
WHEN WE GET to know someone or something really well we sometimes use a special name, a nick name. A nick name is really a name over and above the name that something or someone already carries. The original meaning of sur- name (French surnom) is that it is a re-naming, the placement of a second name above or on top (sur) the first name.i With the nick name we indicate our special relation to something or someone. We make our world knowable by giving names, assigning labels to them. But nicknames and proper names serve a special function. They (re-)name the often more subjectively felt meanings of our relations with others