Narrative practice, neurotrauma, and rehabilitation

Abstract

This chapter conceives of rehabilitation after neurotrauma (which includes stroke and traumatic brain injury) as a unique area of narrative meaning-making. It outlines the nature and need of narrative competence in this field and examines some of the particularities of narrative formation and negotiation of meaning in the context of rehabilitative interactions after brain trauma. As a reaction to the shortcomings of the traditional biomedical approach, it advances a holistic, person-centred, and narrative-based approach to neurorehabilitation. Person-centred care is not only concerned with biological disorders and pathological symptoms but also with individuals and their (auto-)biographical, social, and cultural life worlds. In understanding the goal of neurorehabilitation as enabling persons with a neurotrauma to regain full agency, autonomy, and subjectivity, the chapter suggests the narrative approach as a powerful way to reach this goal.