NARRATIVE REPRESENTATIONS OF CHRONIC ILLNESS EXPERIENCE - CULTURAL MODELS OF ILLNESS, MIND, AND BODY IN STORIES CONCERNING THE TEMPOROMANDIBULAR-JOINT (TMJ)
Lc. Garro, NARRATIVE REPRESENTATIONS OF CHRONIC ILLNESS EXPERIENCE - CULTURAL MODELS OF ILLNESS, MIND, AND BODY IN STORIES CONCERNING THE TEMPOROMANDIBULAR-JOINT (TMJ), Social science & medicine, 38(6), 1994, pp. 775-788
The narratives individuals told about their experiences with an illnes
s they have come to understand as TMJ, a problem linked to the temporo
mandibular joints of the jaw, are complex. Each is embedded within a u
nique set of life circumstances and guided by individual schemas and e
xplanatory models. Each recounts how persons have come to make sense o
f perplexing symptoms that are not easily categorized and treated with
in the North American health care system. Yet, in spite of their disti
nctiveness, the reconstructed narratives are not independent of shared
cultural schemas, such as those relating to mind and body, and other
shared models, such as the model for TMJ, which individuals come to ad
opt as a consequence of treatment and interaction with others. The con
sistent emergence of themes concerning the mind and body within and ac
ross narratives attest to their salience for understanding the narrati
ves related here. While describing the effect of illness on individual
lives, narratives also illuminate how shared understandings shape the
interpretation and construction of individual experience.