Topic > Mental Illness and Personal Narratives - 2072

The use of narratives to gain insight into the human experience is becoming an increasingly popular method of exploration. Starting from the assumption that people are essentially narrative beings who experience every emotion and state through narrative, the value of exploring them gives us a unique understanding. Narrative is believed to serve as a tool to explore how an individual constructs their identity (Czarniawska, 1997) and explains how each individual makes sense of the world around them (Gabriel, 1998). It may also give us an understanding of individual thought processes in relation to individual decision-making practices (O'Connor, 1997). It is evident from studies such as Heider and Simmel (1944), that there appears to be an instinctive nature in people to introduce plot structures and narratives into all situations, with the intention of constructing meaning for all aspects of life in its entirety . The value of storytelling is that it is a tool that allows us to understand what it means to be human and provides us with insight into a person's lived experience while recognizing their cultural and social contexts. Storytelling is believed to be significant as it is “a fruitful organizing principle to help understand the complex conduct of human beings (p.49)” (Sarbin, 1990). It is believed that the construction of a person's narrative depends on each person's individual awareness. about themselves and the circumstances around them. However, a debate has emerged regarding a person's ability to formulate a valid narrative when faced with a mental illness such as schizophrenia. It is often believed that the patient's symptoms interfere with his ability to perceive within a level deemed acceptable by society's norms and therefore with validity... thus verbalizing second-order narratives. These narratives are once again undermined by the individual's inability to evaluate their stories with others due to the social isolation that often occurs. From these summarized points it would be reasonable to assume that these, in combination with the general symptoms of schizophrenia that affect communication such as poverty of speech, affective flattening, word salad and catatonic behaviors previously discussed, mean that any narrative produced cannot possess validity as a consequence of its inconsistency. However, one must understand that schizophrenia is not a simple disorder, it does not affect everyone in the same way and its symptoms are on a spectrum. To put it simply, when it comes to forming a narrative, individual differences are everything.