Global Focus on Knowledge 2008
“Challenging the Mind”

Listening to life stories
Graduate School of Education
Department of Clinical Psychology

Nochi Masahiro
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A way of understanding human beings
 Psychology as a branch of science- understanding the relationship between
stimulus and response stimulus

Livingorganism

response

researchercf.) emic view
etic viewA way of understanding human beings
 In their daily lives/in clinical practicetrying to understand the client not only objectively
but also in the depth of his/her mind, valuing
his/her own interpretation.
interpretation

actor

environment
meaning

emic view(researcher)conduct

What does it mean to”interpret”?
 A basic pattern of interpretation
regardＡas

Ｂ〈A watch〉〈An expensive accessory〉＋ 〈a personal treasure〉

 Life

What is a “life story”?

＝ a span of time when someone is alive
how one’s life is lived
all living things, etc.

 Life storyA fabric composed of words that reflect one’s lifeand give it meaning A Story・has concrete concepts. creates connections between these concepts
・has integrity and coherence

The role of a “life story”

Figure removed
due to copyright restrictions

The role played by a “life story”
  The words Sen (Chihiro) spoke to Haku

“I heard about a dwelling reclaimed from theriver.
The river, now I remember, is the Kohaku. So yourtrue name is Kohaku”.

The meaning of being given a name– Situating - the river Kohaku– The history of the river（its connection to Chihiro)→ A story is given, and with it anidentity

Identity has a story identity
who I am, in what sense am I what I am

 Bases of identity conveyed by a story

something experienced in the present and in the pastthat contains a promise for the future A story told by others

 Loss of a life story can lead to an identity

crisisLife story studies
 A general definition
Life story studies – in this field of study the contentand role of stories assigned to one’s life are
analyzed qualitatively, especially based on aperson’s own narratives.

 Topics in life story studies
What features are common to peoples’ life stories?
Under what circumstances does a life story fall intocrisis?
How does a life story recover from crisis?

Brain injury
 Brain Injury：

brain damage caused byexternal impact＝traffic accidents、sports accidents、
injury inflicted by a criminal act、etc.

 The main symptoms– physical symptoms– disturbance of higher cerebral function
memory impairment
attention deficit
inability to planloss of emotional control

Case “life stories of those with brain injury”
 Participants (male 8, female 2）・24～54 years old, 3～28 years after an injury
・8 persons injured in traffic accidents, 1 in a fall, 1 in a sports accident.
・All have subjective symptoms of brain injury yet maintain their linguistic
abilities
・All left their hospitals more than a year ago and live in theircommunities.
Method
Observation records kept on daily scenes
2-3 Semi-structured interviews of 30～60 minutes

Qualitativeanalysis

Awareness of the image of“Abnormality”
 Being cautious about the term “TBI”（traumatic brain injury）

I don’t like the term,”TBI”, because it makes me
feel branded. Its meaning is known – people tend tojudge all people with TBI based on this label.…I
have TBI. That alone could force me to give up
understanding myself more deeply.（Male 30s）

“brain damage” is accompanied by the following
misperceptions → “foolish”, “crazy” ＝”abnormal”

How to cope with the perception of“abnormality”
 Distinguishing between those who

suffered some brain damage and the“Retarded” or “Mentally ill”
（Though he says hello to everybody that he meets,）he behaves totally differently from those who are
retarded or mentally ill. He acts logically. Though heacts strangely, he never expresses an emotion that
we can’t understand. （Male 40s）

→ try to distinguish brain damage from ”retarded”,”mentally ill”

How to cope with the perception of
being “disabled”
 Puzzlement about “Disabled”
I hate to use the word (disabled) as an excuse forbeing unable to do something. It’s important todistinguish what we can do from what we can’t do.
It’s not my way to blame this on my handicap.
（male 40s）
“disabled”→ Some people use the words “disabled” or”weak” to get pension benefits.

A Paradoxical consequence of
positive words
 “MTBI”（mild traumatic brain injury)
It’s not “mild” at all. It’s destructive. That label hasruined my entire life. （Female 50s）
People neglect the difficulties posed by narrators

A consequence of being almost “Normal” is theexclusion from various services

A paradoxical consequence ofpositive words
 From almost “Normal”
To “stupid”,“lazy”(These words do not connote a handicap, but givea negative impression of personality)
I am fed up with the fight against those who regard
me as “stupid” . One day a colleague of mine cameto my office and said to me ”Haven’t you found theanswer to that problem yet?”.
In fact, I haven’t. I have just begun to prepare
myself for that problem. (Female 40s)

‡:Youko Yamada, Tatuya SATO, Hirohumi Minami eds.,2001, “Catalog; the scene of thePsychology”, 50, figure6-3.

Medical Area

major

major

minor
minor

major
Pathologic of Whole Personality

The significance of life story
studies on handicapped people They can contribute to clinical practices such as

rehabilitation

A model useful for understanding people with the samehandicap=> more finely-tuned services

 They can be a foundation of sympathy toward

the handicapped

Understand the handicapped as people like ourselves
Lead to investigation of more universal aspects of what it is tobe humanLife story in a picture

Frida Kahlo”The broken column”

Life story in a picture