Storytelling as Inquiry in a Mental Hospital

Bibliographic Data

ID5455593
AuthorsTineke Abma (0000-0002-8902-322X, Erasmus University Rotterdam, corresponding author), Tineke A Abma (Department for Health Policy and Management at Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands)
Year1998
Volume8
Issue6
Pages821-838
Publication date1998-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueQualitative Health Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1049-7323 • E-ISSN: 1552-7557
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/104973239800800608
PMID10558349
OpenAlexW2169543616
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited17

People give meaning to chaotic experiences and try to persuade others of their perspectives by telling stories. In the process of meaning making, some stories gain and maintain the status of a standard story. When people no longer recognize themselves in the standard story, it loses credibility and a different story is needed to endow their lives and practices with meaning. A narrative inquiry of a vocational rehabilitation project in a mental hospital shows that inherited stories sustained the therapists' professional practice but prevented a successful re-habilitation of patients. Several therapists were willing to place this standard story between brackets and to listen to other unheard stories told by patients who participated in the project. These marginalized stories did not replace the standard story but enriched it. New plot lines were woven into the existing story and constituted changes in professional practice

Aesthetics · Art · Credibility · Epistemology · Literature · Mental health · Narrative · Narrative inquiry · Pedagogy · Psychotherapist · Storytelling · Community Health and Development · Evaluation and Performance Assessment · Medicine · Nursing · Participatory Visual Research Methods · Psychology · Rehabilitation