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Health Narratives: Connecting Personal Experiences to Social Change

Explore the complexities of personal health narratives and their impact on social change. Delve into identity work and identity struggles faced by individuals with disabilities and illnesses. Discover the power of storytelling in reshaping our perceptions of health and self.

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Health Narratives: Connecting Personal Experiences to Social Change

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  1. Personal complexities COMT 492/592

  2. Narrative • Two modes of thought • Logical reasoning – pardigmatic • Narrative – examination of feelings, personal experiences • Stories about health • Interconnect both types of reasoning-each story reflects the whole of who we are • Narratives become products • Other people listen to them • Vehicles for social change

  3. Health Narratives • Communicating personal fears to others • Connects personal to political by giving voice to life with disability, and limits set by insurance

  4. Provider’s narratives • Disproportionate privilege granted – dominates voice of medicine – silences voice of patient • Providers are also constrained • By American Medical Model, to be scientific not emotional • By managed care to be quick, not caring • Need to be combined with stories of significant others, support network

  5. Narrative & Identity • Disembodiment • A reversal of normal or desired state, away from self. • Spoiled identity or stigma • Loss of control over our bodies (Goffman, 1963) • Body doesn’t meet cultural ideal • Our society privileges perfect bodies • Passing • Try to keep body (whole or part) invisible from public, manage “sick” identity • Transformation • Taking control of illness (or problem) through storytelling

  6. Identity Work • Identity work • process of articulating what it means to have a life proscribed by illness – • illness begins a process of renegotiating identity • Identity work leads to discoveries: • What I have always been (reclaiming right to be who one is) • Who I might become • Cumulative epiphanies (series of self-discoveries)

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