The concept of therapeutic 'emplotment'

Abstract

This paper considers the narrative structure of clinical action. I argue that clinical encounters involve clinician and patient in the creation and negotiation of a plot structure within clinical time. This clinical plot gives meaning to particular therapeutic actions by placing them within a larger therapeutic story. No therapeutic plot is completely pre-ordained, however. Improvisation and revision are necessary to its creation. In making a case for the narrative construction of lived time, of narratives that are created before they are told, this paper departs from the predominant mode of narrative analysis within medical anthropology that has focused on narrative discourse. Therapeutic emplotment is concretely considered through an interpretation of a single case, a clinical interaction between an occupational therapist and a head-injured patient.