PROFESSOR SPARkES
For the purposes of illustration I will are as follows - the past is in the future, person they might be in the future. This
briefly consider just two of the narrative “I was not in this pain before and don’t is not to say that they would not like their
types identified by Arthur Frank2 in his want to be in the future”: the present is in pain to be removed - rather, they have
book called The Wounded Storyteller. the future, “I am living with pain right now formed a different relationship with this
These are the restitution and the quest but want to eradicate it and be pain-free experience.
narratives. in the future”: and the future is in the
past, “In the future I want to be pain-free This is evident in the transcendent hope
With regard to the phenomenon of pain, like I was in my past.” that informs the quest narrative. This type
the restitution narrative goes like this: of hope, is not orientated to achieving a
“Yesterday I was pain-free, today I’m in When these time tenses prevail there is a fixed and specific outcome, but instead
pain, but tomorrow I’ll be pain-free and sense of time being consumed seeking embraces uncertainty and finitude,
healthy again.” This storyline is intimately cures for pain from various sources celebrating surprise, play, novelty,
linked to the notion of the restorable (e.g., conventional medicine and /or mystery, and openness to change. In
body-self, and tends to be dominated complementary therapies). this sense, rather than being defined
by talk of tests and their interpretation, Also, there is a great deal of waiting time, (or enslaved) by particular wishes, the
treatments and possible outcomes, the such as waiting for advances in medical hopeful person, is continually open to
competence of physicians in ‘curing’ science to find a way to eradicate pain. the possibility that reality, even a painful
pain, and alternative treatments. Linked to this is the notion of concrete reality, will disclose as yet unknown
hope that the restitution narrative sources of meaning and value.
In contrast, quest narratives meet provides for the individual in pain. This
suffering head on; they accept pain and kind of hope is orientated to specific Clearly, the restitution and quest
seek to use it. Pain is the occasion for a or material results. It is similar to the narratives shape the experience of pain
journey that becomes a quest. What is typical definition of hope used in the and how it is understood by self and
quested for may never be wholly clear, psychological literature that sees it as the others in very different ways. One is not
but the quest is defined by the person positive expectation of realizing desirable better or worse than the other. They
living with pain believing that something outcomes - the specific and desirable simply provide different resources for
is to be gained from the experience. outcome being, of course, the removal ways of being-in-the world.
Importantly, quest narratives are about of pain.
being transformed and the teller being With pain caused by chronic conditions
given something by the experience of There is a sense of being ‘reborn’ of we might begin to ask: How long is it
pain, that is then passed on to others in ‘traveling’ and creating a distance sensible to go on ‘fighting’ pain and
the telling. between the self now and the self in the treating the body as an ‘enemy’ to be
past. beaten? How long is it sensible to hold
Pain, and often the part of the body from onto an entrenched notion of the self in
which the pain emanates, is an ‘enemy’ Not surprisingly, the quest narrative the past as the only acceptable one to be
that must be ’fought’ and ‘beaten’ contains a different set of metaphors, in the present and the future?
times tenses, and sense of hope. For
To illustrate how each of these narratives example, when giving meaning to their When pain first assaults the individual
shapes the individual experience of pain pain from within this narrative structure, body the immediate reaction is to
in different ways, I will now consider how people tend to draw on the ‘journey’ eradicate it and return to a pain-free
various metaphors and time tenses are metaphor. They speak of the experience state - hence the attraction of the
used within them as well as well as the of pain as allowing them to see the world restitution narrative which, if it works, is
kinds of hope they instill in the teller and in ‘novel’ and more ‘complex’ ways as an appropriate story to reside within and
listener.6,7,9,10,11 new horizons of understanding open up act upon.
before them. There is a sense of being
The metaphors associated with the ‘reborn’ of ‘traveling’ and creating a However, problems can emerge when
restitution narrative are those of ‘battle’ distance between the self now and the over time the restitution narrative does
and ‘war’. Pain, and often the part of the self in the past. not work for the person. Thus, with pain
body from which the pain emanates, is caused by chronic conditions we might
an ‘enemy’ that must be ’fought’ and With regard to time tenses, the past is in begin to ask: How long is it sensible to go
‘beaten’. Winning the battle can only the past, the future is in the future, and on ‘fighting’ pain and treating the body
take place if pain is ‘defeated.’ Once this the present is in the present. Here, time as an ‘enemy’ to be beaten? How long
battle is won, the person can then make is often experienced as being reclaimed is it sensible to hold onto an entrenched
a ‘comeback’ to the person they were as the person becomes more willing to notion of the self in the past as the only
before pain invaded their life. live in the moment rather than dwell on acceptable one to be in the present
The time tenses used within this narrative the person they were in the past or the and the future? How long is it sensible
30 The Backcare Journal
backcare Winter 2009/10.indd 30 8/1/10 11:20:10
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