Lecture 2: The Stories We Tell

Question 1

Define restitution stories, how healing is achieved in these stories and give an example:

Answer 1

Restitution denotes a solution to the problem with the hope and promise of the body returning back to its normal state. Healing is achieved through treatment outside the body such as with surgery or through medication. ‘yesterday I was healthy, today I’m sick, but tomorrow I’ll be healthy
again’.

Question 2

What are chaos stories, what are the features of them and give an example:

Answer 2

• they are from people who have no distance from their illness in their life, instead they are consumed by it
• these stories are endless and they render all treatments pointless
• it follows a characteristic story development of “and then, and then”

Question 3

What are quest stories?

Answer 3

• the story line provides a departure date, an initiation period and then a return date
• the testimony of illness
• the storyteller tells self-consciously of being transformed; undergoing transformation

Question 4

What are testimonial stories?

Answer 4

• these are stories that are pressing you to witness and to believe and they exclude the information that contradicts their key storyline