Maya Lavie-Ajayi1, Nitsan Almog, Michal Krumer-Nevo. 1. Spitzer Department of Social Work, The Israeli Center for Qualitative Research of People and Societies (ICQM), Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel. laviema@bgu.ac.il
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: This paper reports finding from a study that focused on people living with chronic pain, chronicling their experiences of pain and emotional distress, and their social and personal narratives. METHODS: The paper presents an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) of six interviews conducted with men and women aged between 27 and 61. The interviews were taken from a larger study of the experience of chronic pain. FINDINGS: Chronic pain is a double faced phenomenon: a vivid and total experience on one hand, an elusive and deceptive phenomenon on the other. The nature of this phenomenon - together with the medical and public discourse that ignores and delegitimizes chronic pain this condition - prompts people to question their own experiences and to face what we define as a narratological distress. DISCUSSION: Narratological distress is the internal battle between two unwanted narratives: The elusive delegitimizing narrative of denial, which seeks to ignore the experience of pain; and the narrative that acknowledges the pain, but with the price of accepting oneself as "ill" or "disabled."
OBJECTIVES: This paper reports finding from a study that focused on people living with chronic pain, chronicling their experiences of pain and emotional distress, and their social and personal narratives. METHODS: The paper presents an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) of six interviews conducted with men and women aged between 27 and 61. The interviews were taken from a larger study of the experience of chronic pain. FINDINGS:Chronic pain is a double faced phenomenon: a vivid and total experience on one hand, an elusive and deceptive phenomenon on the other. The nature of this phenomenon - together with the medical and public discourse that ignores and delegitimizes chronic pain this condition - prompts people to question their own experiences and to face what we define as a narratological distress. DISCUSSION: Narratological distress is the internal battle between two unwanted narratives: The elusive delegitimizing narrative of denial, which seeks to ignore the experience of pain; and the narrative that acknowledges the pain, but with the price of accepting oneself as "ill" or "disabled."