Chronic pain as a narratological distress: a phenomenological study

Abstract

Objectives: This paper reports finding from a study that focused on people living with chronic pain, chronicling their experiences of pain and emotional distress, and their social and personal narratives.

Methods: The paper presents an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) of six interviews conducted with men and women aged between 27 and 61. The interviews were taken from a larger study of the experience of chronic pain.

Findings: Chronic pain is a double faced phenomenon: a vivid and total experience on one hand, an elusive and deceptive phenomenon on the other. The nature of this phenomenon - together with the medical and public discourse that ignores and delegitimizes chronic pain this condition - prompts people to question their own experiences and to face what we define as a narratological distress.

Discussion: Narratological distress is the internal battle between two unwanted narratives: The elusive delegitimizing narrative of denial, which seeks to ignore the experience of pain; and the narrative that acknowledges the pain, but with the price of accepting oneself as "ill" or "disabled."