Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Wounded Storytellers

Arthur W. Frank's The Wounded Storyteller really breaks down the experience of telling stories about illness. While I enjoyed the examples and quotations from many of the stories, I thought that sometimes he did not make clear enough the distinctions between the categories of the narratives. I thought that the separation between disciplined, dominating, mirroring and communicative storytellers was the most compelling part of the book. When I was in high school a guy I was dating was diagnosed with cancer, and it was easy to detect his dominating way of coping. I was constantly getting guilt tripped and screamed at until we eventually broke up. Luckily, he is fine now, but knowing people who go through that type of thing makes the idealistic types of ill people more understandable. After that part, however, the terms became mixed up. I honestly could not tell you the difference between stories of restitution and those of the type that Frank labels quest. I think the book ultimately is trying to get at the point that telling stories of illness can be beneficial both to the storyteller and the listener and can be an important part of healing ones self and offering comfort to others. I also agree that it is better to learn from someone who has experienced illness than from those who can diagnose or treat such things. It is also important to acknowledge person experience and pain rather than to think of it in terms of numbers and tests.

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