NARRATIVE REPRESENTATIONS OF CHRONIC ILLNESS EXPERIENCE - CULTURAL MODELS OF ILLNESS, MIND, AND BODY IN STORIES CONCERNING THE TEMPOROMANDIBULAR-JOINT (TMJ)

Authors
Citation
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
Citations number
57
Categorie Soggetti
Social Sciences, Biomedical
Journal title
ISSN journal
02779536
Volume
38
Issue
6
Year of publication
1994
Pages
775 - 788
Database
ISI
SICI code
0277-9536(1994)38:6<775:NROCIE>2.0.ZU;2-P
Abstract
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.