In Erkundung, Catherine Safonoff describes what escapes being defined in her innermost being and gives this state literary form.

Erkundung consists of twenty-five tongue-in-cheek, self-critical, and light-footed texts and images that reflect the author's life. She looks back with a keen eye, relives her experiences, changes her attitude, and thus turns dark hours of memory into bright accents for the present. She analyzes parental, passionate, fallible, and painful bonds.

Exploring her own central themes, she uncovers the conflict-ridden love for a lover, father, or mother. She rises to the challenge of analyzing herself in different roles: Being a daughter as well as a mother, and the challenge of staying with herself in these moments.
The author talks about others by talking about herself and creates an intense closeness through the depth of her texts this way. She reflects on her relationships with other people and talks about the freedom she has won for herself. She writes about what loneliness means and what it means to grow old. Her writing style is profound, luminous, gripping, light, and intimate. This work is an exploration of the past, combined with the search for one's own acknowledgement.