The unexpected other: Challenges and strategies after acquired impairment

Abstract

People experiencing traumatic brain injury or multitrauma will often live with problems in functioning for a profound period in life. A situation of great complexity emerges involving both the experience of an impaired body and the experience of a changed social position. This article addresses the intricate relations between the altered body, personal ambitions, and social surroundings in the first 2–3 years after an injury. The conceptual framework centers around the process of change, applying concepts such as the unexpected other and biographical reconstruction. Twenty-one people of working age were interviewed two times. All interviewees had experienced traumatic brain injury or multitrauma. A thematic narrative analysis was applied. Consequences of the injury took place at a carnal level where fatigue is something completely different from becoming exhausted and where elimination of body waste takes place through practices novel to the injured person. Living with impairment also took place at the level of social interaction. Here, family relations, shame, and establishing a new identity seemed profoundly important. This article makes two novel contributions. First, it emphasizes more than previous studies do that the daily management of altered body functions is more important for independence and wellbeing. Second, the article identifies the narrative about the accident as an important issue for injured people to settle.

(Re)constructing identity following acquired brain injury: The complex journey of recovery after stroke

“…They highlight the relevance of engagement in interaction and in the definition of new roles and strategies that include the biological body and make it a relational body. 21,[49][50][51] These findings show the potential of narrative analysis and positioning with respect to the construction of identity and the relationship between psychology and neurology. Moreover, they can help differentiate narratives that can facilitate rehabilitation and/or the construction of new roles and promote the overall health from narratives that lock and immobilize the person in his or her impairment.…”

“…Moreover, the positionings regarding relations with different people have emerged as particularly relevant: caregivers, health professionals and the generalized other. They highlight the relevance of engagement in interaction and in the definition of new roles and strategies that include the biological body and make it a relational body 21,49–51 …”

“…They highlight the relevance of engagement in interaction and in the definition of new roles and strategies that include the biological body and make it a relational body. 21 , 49 , 50 , 51 …”

Disrupción biográfica y discapacidad cognitiva en el daño cerebral adquirido. Visibilización narrativa

“…En los relatos, esto parece traducirse en una mayor desconfianza en el sistema. La trascendencia de la vivencia del DCA implica la necesidad de cambios innegables en el juicio institucional que surge después de la lesión (Hughes et al, 2020;Solvang et al, 2021).…”