Article published In: Journal of Narrative and Life History
Vol. 5:1 (1995) ► pp.67–84
Lars-Christer Hyden
Published online: 4 August 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/jnlh.5.1.04ins
https://doi.org/10.1075/jnlh.5.1.04ins
Abstract
After the occurrence of a disruptive illness, questions tend to arise about oneself and one's way of life and its moral meaning. These questions concern what kind of person one is and how one can sustain one's identity and self-image in the face of disruptive events. In this sense, the reconstruction of a life narrative is a moral quest. In this article, an analysis is presented of an interview with a former psychiatric patient concerning his mental illness and experience of psychosis. The analysis of this man's reconstructive work shows that he assigns the disruptive event a particular place in his life narrative to invest it with meaning and sense. This means not only establishing what has happened but also why it has happened. An important condition for the narrativization of disruptive events is the identification of a "platform," which can serve as a basis from which the reconstructive work can start. The platform defines the point from which a connection with one's previous life can be established. The identification of a platform can be viewed as the formulation of a voice; that is to say, a kind of normative order of the relation among the actions, events, and persons who figure in the life narrative. (Psychology)
References (35)
American Psychiatric Association. (1987). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (3rd ed., rev.). Washington, DC: Author.
Anderson, R., & Bury, M. (1988). Living with chronic illness. The experience of patients and their families. London: Unwin.
Backett, K. (1992). Taboos and excesses: Lay health moralities in middle class families. Sociology of Health and Illness, 141, 255–274.
Bury, M. (1982). Chronic illness as biographical disruption. Sociology of Health and Illness, 41, 167–182.
(1991). The sociology of chronic illness: A review of research and prospects. Sociology of Health and Illness, 131, 451–468.
Charmaz, K. (1983). Loss of self: A fundamental form of suffering in the chronically ill. Sociology of Health and Illness, 51, 168–197.
Davidson, L., & Strauss, J. B. (1992). Sense of self in recovery from severe mental illness. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 651, 131–145.
Early, E. A. (1982). The logic of well being. Therapeutic narratives in Cairo, Egypt. Social Science and Medicine, 161, 1491–1497.
Edgerton, R. B. (1966). Conceptions of psychosis in four east African societies. American Anthropologist, 681, 408–425.
Estroff, S. E. (1989). Self, identity, and subjective experiences of schizophrenia: In search of the subject. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 151, 189–196.
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1976). Witchcraft oracles, and the magic among the Azande. Oxford, England: Clarendon.
Good, B. J. (1994). Medicine, rationality, and experience. An anthropological perspective. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Harris, G. G. (1989). Mechanism and morality in patient's views of illness and injury. Medical Anthropology Quarterly [new series], 31, 3–21.
Ingram, A. (1991). The madhouse of language. Writing and reading madness in the eighteenth century. London: Routledge.
Kleinman, A. (1988). The illness narratives. Suffering, healing and the human condition. New York: Basic Books.
Linde, C. (1986). Explanatory systems in oral life stories. In D. Holland & N. Quinn (Eds.), Cultural models in language and thought (pp. 343–366). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Mishler, E. G. (1986). Research interviewing. Context and narrative. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
(in press). Narrative account in clinical and research interviews. In B-L. Gunnarsson, P. Linell, & B. Nordberg (Eds.), The construction of professional discourse. London: Longman.
Nussbaum, M. C. (1986). The fragility of goodness. Luck and ethics in Greek tragedy and philosophy. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Strauss, J. S. (1989). Subjective experiences of schizophrenia: Toward a new dynamic psychiatry, II. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 151, 179–187.
(1992). The person—Key to understanding mental illness: Towards a new dynamic psychiatry, III. British Journal of Psychiatry, 1611 (Suppl.), 19–26.
Taylor, C. (1989). Sources of the self. The making of the modern identity. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Williams, G. (1984). The genesis of chronic illness: Narrative re-construction. Sociology of Health and Illness, 61, 175–200.
(1993). Chronic illness and the pursuit of virtue in everyday life. In A. Radley (Ed.), Worlds of illness. Biographical and cultural perspectives on health and disease (pp. 92–108). London: Routledge.
Cited by (20)
Cited by 20 other publications
Kaspar, Heidi, Alwin Abegg & Sunita Reddy
Figueras Bates, Carolina
2018. Performing the self in illness narratives. In
Perspectives on Evidentiality in Spanish [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 290], ► pp. 73 ff.
Hillman, Alexandra, Ian Rees Jones, Catherine Quinn, Sharon M. Nelis & Linda Clare
Adams, Wallis E., Irina L. G. Todorova, Mariana T. Guzzardo & Luis M. Falcón
Eide, Phyllis
Manderson, Lenore & Lesley Stirling
McKenna, Jim & Howard Thomas
Shelton, Jeremy A. & Cara Lee Okleshen Peters
Lips‐Wiersma, Marjolein
Lips‐Wiersma, Marjolein
Lips‐Wiersma, Marjolein & Colleen Mills
Ylijoki, Oili-Helena
Price, Linda L., Eric J. Arnould & Carolyn Folkman Curasi
Richman, Joel
Forrester, Michael A.
STERN, SERGIO, MOIRA DOOLAN, EMMA STAPLES, GEORGE L. SZMUKLER & IVAN EISLER
Sparkes, Andrew C.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.