Out of place

Narrative insights into agoraphobia

Bibliographic Data

ID11273091
AuthorsLisa Capps (Center for Applied Linguistics, corresponding author), Elinor Ochs (University of California, Los Angeles)
Year1995
Volume19
Issue3
Pages407-439
Publication date1995-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueDiscourse Processes (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0163-853X • E-ISSN: 1532-6950
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01638539509544925
OpenAlexW1986353293
LanguageEN
Citations received22
References cited50

This study explores how agoraphobia is realized through the activity of storytelling. Analysis of one agoraphobic woman's narratives articulates (a) the narrative structuring of a panic episode, (b) the grammatical resources systematically recruited to portray panic as unaccountable and the protagonist as irrational and helpless, and (c) a recurrent communicative dilemma narrated in the setting, which anticipates the onset of panic. The narrator presents two conflicting accounts of panic: One foregrounded in her stories and in clinical literature links panic to an immediate activity and location; another backgrounded in her stories and heretofore unrecognized in the literature links panic to a failure to communicate unwillingness to participate in proposed activities that compromise the protagonist's perceived well‐being. We conclude that agoraphobia is a communicative disorder that constructs a range of relationships. This study offers a methodology for researchers, clinicians, and sufferers of agoraphobia for illuminating the complex logic and paradoxes in narrative accounts of panic experience

Agoraphobia · Anxiety · Dilemma · Epistemology · Linguistics · Narrative · Panic · Psychiatry · Psychoanalysis · Psychotherapist · Storytelling · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Media Influence and Health · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub