The irruption of severe mental distress into the life of an individual determines a deep biographical disruption. To cope with this crisis, individuals are involved in a laborious sense-making activity, through the composition of a narratives intended to create a new link between past, present and future. The essay analyzes the sense-making strategies that follow this dramatic experience through the comparison of four illness narratives composed by as much Italian suffering people. The narratives are selected from a broader textual corpus in a way that authorize their connotation as "flesh and blood" ideal type. These narratives illustrates three kind of explanation for the outset of mental distress: the bio-medical adopted by Vito, the spiritual-religious adopted by Marta, the psycho-social, adopted by Giacomo. Vito, Marta and Giacomo are still inside the story they are telling, and compose the events by observing them through the eyes of a patient, qualifying their diversity as a stigma. The fourth narrative is different, composed by Serena a "voices hearer" who come to terms with her voices not by silencing them with drugs, but by accepting them as a charisma that has transformed her into a medium and, on final analysis, a balanced woman.
Il male mentale. Distruzione e ricostruzione del sé
CARDANO, Mario
2008-01-01
Abstract
The irruption of severe mental distress into the life of an individual determines a deep biographical disruption. To cope with this crisis, individuals are involved in a laborious sense-making activity, through the composition of a narratives intended to create a new link between past, present and future. The essay analyzes the sense-making strategies that follow this dramatic experience through the comparison of four illness narratives composed by as much Italian suffering people. The narratives are selected from a broader textual corpus in a way that authorize their connotation as "flesh and blood" ideal type. These narratives illustrates three kind of explanation for the outset of mental distress: the bio-medical adopted by Vito, the spiritual-religious adopted by Marta, the psycho-social, adopted by Giacomo. Vito, Marta and Giacomo are still inside the story they are telling, and compose the events by observing them through the eyes of a patient, qualifying their diversity as a stigma. The fourth narrative is different, composed by Serena a "voices hearer" who come to terms with her voices not by silencing them with drugs, but by accepting them as a charisma that has transformed her into a medium and, on final analysis, a balanced woman.
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