Brody - Stories Of Sickness

             Where does that point take us? Well, Sacks reminds us of a common expression,"If we wish to know a man , we ask.'what is his story, his real, in-most story?" So there it is. "What's the story?" What's the story on So and So?" Insofar as everybody has a life, everybody has a story. Brody says," As narratives each of us is unique." True or not? Can you imagine talking to many people and really hearing the same story twice? Hard to imagine, even people born in the same house have different stories. So, from this it is easy to see that being able to tell your story at all, or especially the story of how you got sick and struggled to get well could by the very telling of it bring you into a higher energy state, one a bit closer to health.
             On the other hand, losing your narrative, not being able to tell your story, could well bring about loss of identity, which is an illness in itself, or a breeder of illness. Not being able to tell your story due to illness may be the story of a case of amnesia, a case of madness, which are always cases of wandering outside the boundaries of respectabilty. Sacks has lots of those stories. And here's the point. Stories of loss remind us of the value of what we have--"You don't know what you've got till it's gone," as the song says. There are a number of broad topics under which the following discussion of Brody's approach to joining the practices belonging to sickness and the practices of storytelling.
             1. Healing sickness can be seen as a storytelling enterprise. Patients tell their story to the healer. The healer writes out the case history for the file, discusses the case--ie retells a version to colleagues and students. The case may also appear published in a journal. In all the foregoing instances, the 'storytelling' involved serves a social purpose, and also contributes to the healing function. We also need to consider how much patients telling the stories of their sickness gives valuable--ie 'healing'--feedback to themselves, and to what extent the listeners learn valuable information about the experience of sickness and healing.