This article explores the process of “unveiling” researcher positionality during fieldwork in Swiss psychiatric spaces and in academia, whilst the researcher herself has a personal connection to the topic as a family member of someone with long-term psychological difficulties. I argue that vulnerability generates what I call “affective territories”. These are decisive in producing forms of knowledge that would otherwise escape researchers in fields where epistemic injustice is systemic. It shows how this positionality can become central in entering spaces of care and solidarity. But this unveiling also generated personal doubts concerning scholarly credibility. This paper tackles why, arguing that many academic circles still equate such credibility with keeping an “objective” distance and remaining emotionally non-vulnerable. It highlights a paradox in anthropology: while reflexive inquiries into the affective and political entanglements within social suffering are epistemologically valued, academic cultures do not always provide supportive spaces for such positionings and methodologies.