Chronicling the chronic: Narrating the meaninglessness of chronic pain
van Hout,Femke van Rooden,Aukje Slatman,Jenny
van Hout,Femke
van Rooden,Aukje
Slatman,Jenny
Abstract
This article proposes a way of narrating chronic pain: the telling of a chronicle. Recent work in the medical humanities has been critical of traditional approaches to illness narratives. In line with this criticism, we argue that the experience of chronic pain resists internally coherent, plot-driven-in other words, Aristotelian-narrative. Drawing on phenomenological studies, we state that chronic pain is an utterly meaningless experience due to its relentless continuation over time. It therefore defies any narrative search for a higher meaning or purpose as well as the search for a coherent and progressive 'plot'. However, we reject the idea that chronic pain could therefore only be captured in the form of a meaningless, unshareable and chaotic anti-narrative. Instead, we propose that chronic pain could be borne witness to through the speech act of chronicling-an ongoing telling about ongoing suffering. Building on work of contemporary philosophers Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe and Jean-Luc Nancy, we examine what the chronicle entails by touching on three themes: time, meaning, and the body. First, we argue that chronicling allows people to bear witness to chronic pain's purposeless continuation over time, thereby affirming the utter meaninglessness of the experience. Second, we argue that it is precisely in the affirmation of this meaninglessness that a different kind of meaning can be experienced: a meaning which cannot be detached from the sensory experience of telling and listening itself. Third, we examine how chronicling chronic pain could allow the muted and painful body to once again meaningfully express itself to others.
Description
Publisher Copyright: © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.
Date
2022-07-18
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Research Projects
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Keywords
literature and medicine, patient narratives, literary theory, Medical humanities, philosophy of medicine, health care, PHENOMENOLOGY, ILLNESS, STIGMA
Citation
van Hout, F, van Rooden, A & Slatman, J 2022, 'Chronicling the chronic : Narrating the meaninglessness of chronic pain', Medical Humanities, pp. 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2021-012331, https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2021-012331