Lecture 2 - The stories we tell Flashcards
Outline restitution stories
Associated with the recently ill rather than chronically ill, compelling cause often true.
“Yesterday I was healthy, today I am sick, tomorrow I will be well”
Active story is medication of treatment modality. Biomedicine emerges as heroic and triumphant.
Outline chaos stories
Not admired.
Stories of people who had no distance from their illness - are consumed by it.
“and then… and then… and then”
Can patients of chaos stories provide all salient medical inform about there condition
No, as the self itself has become broken and is no longer coherent
Outline witness response to chaos stories
Try to redirect them, to lead the teller onwards to an uplifting narrative arc, but in chaos story the whirlpool effect is stronger.
Outline quest stories
Story line provides a departure date, an initiation period, then a return.
Self is constructed heroically, key characteristic of story is endurance and forbearance.
Experience of suffering is central to initial quest experience.
How is the “reason” for the suffering of a quest story discovered
The experience of suffering is central to the initial quest experience but it is by learning the integrity of suffering that the questing hero encounters the ‘reason’ for their trials
Outline testimonial stories
Pressing you to witness and to believe and excluding information that contradicts their key storyline.
If chaos, quest, and restitution stories are also testimonial stories, then what part of reality do they leave out
Restitution stories leave out metaphysical aspects of illness, chaos stories leave out the possibility of hope and acceptance, quest stories tend to diminish greatly the suffering involved at least initially
