Gut Feelings - Chronic Illness and the Search for Healing - by Garrett, C

Garrett, C. Gut Feelings - Chronic Illness and the Search for Healing . Amsterdam : Rodopi , 2005 . 30 Euros (pbk) 166 pp . ISBN 90-420-1654-X Catherine Garrett's book is a very personal journey through chronic illness, but with a background in sociology she has created a work that is more than narrative. She states that her aim is to interweave experience with reflection, bridging the gap between the personal and the academic. So her own chronic illness is portrayed within a context of academic writing from authors such as Frank and Scarry, as well as other experiential and often quite spiritual work, for example, Teresa of Avila. The book is divided into two parts. The first describes the experience of chronic illness and the quest for understanding; the second documents the search for healing. Each chapter reflects on a different aspect of chronic illness and moves beyond the personal to an engagement with theory and the experience of others. ‘Gut feelings’ is both a literal and metaphorical title, as Garrett's experience is of chronic digestive tract pain that has been largely unexplained. She has also sought to understand her pain, and writing the book has been a response to the pain and a search for relief of the suffering, as well as an academic exercise. The intended audience for the book is people who experience pain and those who seek to alleviate it. I would also add those who are researching people with pain, as the approach is not a conventional sociology of health and illness and so adds a different dimension. The book opens with a photograph of Epstein's ‘Jacob and the angel’, which Garrett states represents the experiences and ideas of the book - pain and suffering, conflict, change and resolution, bodies, emotions and creativity. Many people who experience chronic pain will identify with these themes, the unexplained pain, the diagnostic false trails, the search for relief through orthodox and alternative therapy, the hopelessness and despair, the shift from hope of a cure to some form of management. My own research on endometriosis encompasses just such narratives, but also includes the fight to be taken seriously, the minimalising of symptoms by health professionals, aspects of chronic pain that are also recurring themes, but are not part of this narrative. The second chapter chronicles the origins and development of Garrett's abdominal pain and associated life events. She states that pain is often said to be inexpressible in language, but then gives examples that belie this. She also describes here the power of art to express pain in a way that moves beyond language. Pain is then linked to suffering, but at the same time distinguished from it, the involvement of the whole being in suffering being key. The notion of suffering from various religious teachings is explored in the following chapter, but the overriding sense of the book is a Christian perspective because, as Garrett acknowledges, this is her own cultural background. Part two of the book documents the search for healing. The ritual actions of transcendental meditation, yoga and reiki are discussed in the next chapter, and the way in which these helped Garrett to change her attitude towards chronic illness and to understand how to live with it. She describes how she practiced these rituals at a time when she did not think of the pain as a chronic illness, but as normal and inevitable. Yoga, meditation and reiki were a means of becoming more peaceful and balanced. These are contrasted with the alternative remedies of the following chapter which were embarked upon when modern medicine could not alleviate the pain, in a search for a cure for it. Much of this chapter reverts to the story-telling of earlier chapters and takes the reader through a myriad of therapies, both active and passive, with a large part given over to pilgrimages made by Garrett. These are both spiritual pilgrimages, and a return to a former childhood home. The final two chapters move away from Garrett's personal story towards an attempt to make sense of her experience through the writings of others, particularly spiritual writers, such as Julian of Norwich. It is in these chapters, however, that analysis, rather than reflection is apparent, and Garrett locates her own narrative within the contemplative typology. This is a very different book from those I am used to reviewing. It is not straightforward, nor does it emanate from a particular perspective. The sociological, psychological, anthropological and theological theories used to explore and explain chronic pain are those that most closely reflect Garrett's experience, and are an eclectic mix. I think that those with strong spiritual and religious faith will find common ground and empathy with Garrett's standpoint and quest for relief from pain. Others may find some of her reflections a distraction from a more overtly sociological analysis

Chronic pain · Context (archaeology · Feeling · Health care · Literature · Narrative · Psychiatry · Psychoanalysis · Psychotherapist · Sociology of health and illness · Storytelling · History · Obesity and Health Practices · Psychology · Social Psychology

• The Wounded Storyteller

  A W Frank•Wounded Storyteller•1995

  Add to list

• Historical events as transformations of structures

  Open Access•William H Sewell•Theory and Society•1996

  Add to list