Welcome to the experiential section of the website. This approach within medical anthropology attempts to understand illnesses from the individual perspective and how it relates to the rest of the world through the use of illness narratives as well as considering the biological, psychological, social dimensions of what it means to be sick. The way illness is viewed, as understood in part from the previous two sections, is culturally tied in many cases. As described by Taz Karim in the fourth week of class lecture, an illness narrative is a story that someone tells about their condition and the processes that take place from diagnosis to current living condition. There is a little more to understanding illness than just the narrative however, the experience of an illness can tell anthropologists the feelings that people have, how they are perceived, and also how they cope and live with the illness. There is also the meaning to the illness which would how people make sense of their illness and how it effects their life.
The narrative itself allows the teller to have a mode of expression and allows the listeners to identify with the teller. This can be linked back to the ethnomedical approach when looking at the popular sector of healthcare and seeking help from friends/family or other people who have the same condition. As Taz explained in lecture 2 from week 4, there are three types of illness narratives that somebody can tell or cycle between: the restitution, chaos, and quest narrative. Those people who tell a narrative and describe their situation as a temporary affliction to their normal lives and plan on eliminating this problem in a given time falls into the restitution narrative zone. These people have a goal of a healthy recovery and believe that for every problem, especially in Westernized medicine that there is a biological cure to it.
When the individual is describing their experience or illness as being a permanent part of their living condition and generally lacks hope to return to a normal pre-illness lifestyle the person is telling what is described as a chaos narrative. These types of narratives usually accompany chronic or degenerative conditions and show some sort of social suffering. These narratives are often given to close friends or family members because of their emotional turmoil. The quest narrative is unique from the other two because in my own opinion, it is a blend of the other two narratives and has different meaning. This narrative gets its name because the teller will describe a journey with some sort of beneficial aspect to having the illness in the first place. For example, if someone had been living with diabetes for quite some time now, but they have learned to cope, integrate, and live a "normal" life, but also feel as if they have become a better person because of their diabetes, then it would be a good example of a quest narrative.
Typically throughout the illness narrative there can be six distinct forms or structures within. These six structures are: abstract, orientation, complicating action, evaluation, result/resolution, and coda. Each of these will be explained with the example narrative about a young girl who was diagnosed with diabetes. Feel free to watch and listen to DiabeticDanica tell her own story and then read below afterwards to understand the six structures to illness narratives.
The narrative itself allows the teller to have a mode of expression and allows the listeners to identify with the teller. This can be linked back to the ethnomedical approach when looking at the popular sector of healthcare and seeking help from friends/family or other people who have the same condition. As Taz explained in lecture 2 from week 4, there are three types of illness narratives that somebody can tell or cycle between: the restitution, chaos, and quest narrative. Those people who tell a narrative and describe their situation as a temporary affliction to their normal lives and plan on eliminating this problem in a given time falls into the restitution narrative zone. These people have a goal of a healthy recovery and believe that for every problem, especially in Westernized medicine that there is a biological cure to it.
When the individual is describing their experience or illness as being a permanent part of their living condition and generally lacks hope to return to a normal pre-illness lifestyle the person is telling what is described as a chaos narrative. These types of narratives usually accompany chronic or degenerative conditions and show some sort of social suffering. These narratives are often given to close friends or family members because of their emotional turmoil. The quest narrative is unique from the other two because in my own opinion, it is a blend of the other two narratives and has different meaning. This narrative gets its name because the teller will describe a journey with some sort of beneficial aspect to having the illness in the first place. For example, if someone had been living with diabetes for quite some time now, but they have learned to cope, integrate, and live a "normal" life, but also feel as if they have become a better person because of their diabetes, then it would be a good example of a quest narrative.
Typically throughout the illness narrative there can be six distinct forms or structures within. These six structures are: abstract, orientation, complicating action, evaluation, result/resolution, and coda. Each of these will be explained with the example narrative about a young girl who was diagnosed with diabetes. Feel free to watch and listen to DiabeticDanica tell her own story and then read below afterwards to understand the six structures to illness narratives.
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The abstract: The story is about a girl who explained her initial diagnosis of diabetes, the events that led to seeking medical treatment, the shock of diagnosis, and what happened afterward. The abstract is essentially an overview of the situation.
Orientation: It was a summer day in August. The young girl and her mother were going to head out for a shopping trip for school clothes, but first they were headed to a doctors appointment because of some unusual symptoms the grandmother had observed weeks prior. The girl made her way to the hospital, which was about thirty min away from the doctors office, where she interacted with many medical staff and had family over her three day stay. The orientation is supposed to do exactly what it sounds like, orient you to the situation by giving you the who, what, when, people involved and temporal context to the story.
Complicating action: the complicating action of this story was the trip to the doctors office initially because of the blood glucose testing and the shock of having such a high level. The second complicating action of the narrative was being in the hospital and being bombarded with so much information so fast about a condition that neither the child or her mother knew really anything significant about. The complicating action is not just the complications, but more so it is the part that asks, then what happened?
The evaluation: is the girl sizing up the situation and understanding why she is in the hospital getting treatment and education for being classified as a diabetic. This is the initial step in understanding how living with diabetes will effect aspects of her life.
Resolution: this is the part of the narrative where there is some conclusion to the situation. In this specific diabetic case, the girl had described the situation which occurred roughly nine years prior to her telling of the story and now she describes how she accepts the illness in her life even though previously she couldn't understand why this was happening to her. The girl described that in time all things get better and that now nothing holds her back. Having the disease in her case sparked an interest in the medical field and now she is pursuing an education and profession for working in the diabetic field.
The coda: the coda tells the listener how it all happened and in a sense is a final summary and serves as a guide to others. Now that she has everything under control, she is reaching out to others who are new to the disease and looking for guidance as a means to help people overcome their initial monumental struggles.
As the beginning of this page started with a set of rails and a start message, the end of the line has come as with any illness narrative. There is a beginning and end to a story and in the case of DiabeticDanica, she has reached her pit-stop and starting a new chapter of her life journey.
Orientation: It was a summer day in August. The young girl and her mother were going to head out for a shopping trip for school clothes, but first they were headed to a doctors appointment because of some unusual symptoms the grandmother had observed weeks prior. The girl made her way to the hospital, which was about thirty min away from the doctors office, where she interacted with many medical staff and had family over her three day stay. The orientation is supposed to do exactly what it sounds like, orient you to the situation by giving you the who, what, when, people involved and temporal context to the story.
Complicating action: the complicating action of this story was the trip to the doctors office initially because of the blood glucose testing and the shock of having such a high level. The second complicating action of the narrative was being in the hospital and being bombarded with so much information so fast about a condition that neither the child or her mother knew really anything significant about. The complicating action is not just the complications, but more so it is the part that asks, then what happened?
The evaluation: is the girl sizing up the situation and understanding why she is in the hospital getting treatment and education for being classified as a diabetic. This is the initial step in understanding how living with diabetes will effect aspects of her life.
Resolution: this is the part of the narrative where there is some conclusion to the situation. In this specific diabetic case, the girl had described the situation which occurred roughly nine years prior to her telling of the story and now she describes how she accepts the illness in her life even though previously she couldn't understand why this was happening to her. The girl described that in time all things get better and that now nothing holds her back. Having the disease in her case sparked an interest in the medical field and now she is pursuing an education and profession for working in the diabetic field.
The coda: the coda tells the listener how it all happened and in a sense is a final summary and serves as a guide to others. Now that she has everything under control, she is reaching out to others who are new to the disease and looking for guidance as a means to help people overcome their initial monumental struggles.
As the beginning of this page started with a set of rails and a start message, the end of the line has come as with any illness narrative. There is a beginning and end to a story and in the case of DiabeticDanica, she has reached her pit-stop and starting a new chapter of her life journey.
References
"A New Beginning on a Powerful Journey," Excellence Training Academy. Last modified October 16, 2012, http://www.infinitesuccesses.com/a-new-beginning-on-a-powerful-journey/.
DiabeticDanica. "My Diagnosis Story: T1 Diabetes (Part 1)." Accessed August 9, 2013, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwFqCHtW8I0
DiabeticDanica. "My Diagnosis Story: T1 Diabetes (Part 2 and My Advice to the Newly Diagnosed)." Accessed August 9, 2013, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEsprHSwR30.
"File:Sleights station steam train.jpg," Wikipedia. Accessed August 9, 2013, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sleights_station_steam_train.jpg.
Taz Karim. "Week 4: Lecture 1." Michigan State University ANP 204- Introduction
to Medical Anthropology. Accessed August 9, 2013, http://anthropology.msu.edu/anp204-us13/week-4-lecture-1/.
Taz Karim. "Week 4: Lecture 2." Michigan State University ANP 204- Introduction
to Medical Anthropology. Accessed August 9, 2013, http://anthropology.msu.edu/anp204-us13/week-4-lecture-2/.
"A New Beginning on a Powerful Journey," Excellence Training Academy. Last modified October 16, 2012, http://www.infinitesuccesses.com/a-new-beginning-on-a-powerful-journey/.
DiabeticDanica. "My Diagnosis Story: T1 Diabetes (Part 1)." Accessed August 9, 2013, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwFqCHtW8I0
DiabeticDanica. "My Diagnosis Story: T1 Diabetes (Part 2 and My Advice to the Newly Diagnosed)." Accessed August 9, 2013, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEsprHSwR30.
"File:Sleights station steam train.jpg," Wikipedia. Accessed August 9, 2013, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sleights_station_steam_train.jpg.
Taz Karim. "Week 4: Lecture 1." Michigan State University ANP 204- Introduction
to Medical Anthropology. Accessed August 9, 2013, http://anthropology.msu.edu/anp204-us13/week-4-lecture-1/.
Taz Karim. "Week 4: Lecture 2." Michigan State University ANP 204- Introduction
to Medical Anthropology. Accessed August 9, 2013, http://anthropology.msu.edu/anp204-us13/week-4-lecture-2/.