A collective narrative (Richardson, 1995) can be developed by gathering the personal narratives of individuals and providing an overall narrative for the group. (2004) collected the stories of Santalis concerning health, happiness and constraints to the good life. He was able to give voice to both individuals and to a culture. Furthermore, he does so in light of the interdisciplinary model which is crucial to gaining a holistic understanding of any problem. Understanding the Santali narrative or any cultural narrative as one that includes economic, religious, historical, and political elements is indeed crucial for global health ethnographers. But at the same time, when a collective narrative is provided it too can silence people through its universalizing nature. Thus, the collective narrative approach has benefits and drawbacks. The collective narrative is especially valuable as it provides “the possibility for social action on behalf of the collective” (Richardosn, 1995, p. 214). Yet, there are times that individual’s stories or an embedded-culture’s (within the larger culture) stories are lost in the collective story. For instance, even though nearly half the respondents were women in the Santali collective narrative and individual women’s stories were told, they were reported in the research from the “Santali” perspective, not from the “Santali women’s” perspective. In addition, individual stories may have some unique idiosyncrasies. Richardson reminds researchers that any stories “that deviate from the standard cultural plot provide new narratives” (p. 213) and Author (1993, 1998) suggested “sequestered narratives” are not uncommon among the marginalized members of society. Indeed, even stories within stories need to be considered. And counter-narratives should definitely be included (Author, 2006). We believe the collective narrative via personal narratives is one means to explore global health issues within the culture-centered approach, but we also believe that another
approach, extended narrative empathy, can provide additional information that is invaluable to solving global health issues. Before detailing extended narrative empathy, we review empathy, narrative, and narrative empathy, separately. Following these sections, we return to the story of Meera Devi to be discussed in light of the proposed theory and method. Empathy A detailed history of scholarly work devoted to empathy could be traced to antiquity as Aristotle devoted extensive thought to understanding and explaining pathos, empathy’s forerunner. Aristotle asserted that both the speaker and the audience must be in the “right frame of mind” (Book 11, 1, 1-25—Barnes, 1984), meaning the emotional state necessary to arouse the intended response. One must be able to feel the emotional connection, or pathos πάθος, in order for ethos and logos to have bearing. He did not restrict the emotions to sympathy or pity. He wrote at length of the variety of emotions including anger, calmness, friendship, enmity, fear, confidence, shame, shamelessness, admiration, kindness, altruism, pity, indignation, envy, desire, emulation, and so on (Book 11, 1-12). “The emotions are all those feelings that so change men [sic] as to affect their judgment and that also are attended by pain or pleasure” (Book 11, 1, 21-22). Pathos and identification link to empathy ἐμπάθεια (empatheia—in passion) in that empathy is a praxis—felt, embodied, engaged—way of relating or identifying with some other being. Kenneth Burke (1937/1969) asserted that identification is central to persuasion as it is the ability to relate to the speaker. But empathy is not simply being persuaded; it is also understanding. Or as Burke noted it is crucial to achieving common ground and consubstantiality.
“essential genre for the characterization of human action” (p. 200). This gave Fisher a framework for proposing a narrative paradigm—a theoretical means for understanding and explaining human experience through a “narrative context: history, culture, biography, and character” (p. 3). Fisher claimed that narrative is “germane to social and political life” (p. 3). Across his various articles he credited others, such as Cassier (1944), Langer (1942), and Burke (1968) as well as a host of postmodern philosophers and the contributors of the 1980 Critical Inquiry special edition mentioned earlier. For instance, and perhaps most notably, Fisher relied on Burke who suggested that people are drawn together into communities that “sanction” their stories and position them in history as a part of humanity. More specifically, Fisher, described people as storytellers who make decisions based on “good reasons” that are grounded in narrative judgment which is driven by their historical/cultural and personal backgrounds. Fisher also posited that “narrative probability, that is, what constitutes a coherent story” and “narrative fidelity” that is, what makes a story “ring true” are the bases of human logic (p. 8). Drawing from Angel Medina (1979), who asserted “human reason is narrative” (p. 30), Fisher applied the paradigm to the debates over nuclear weapons and the role of lay public. Specifically, he drew the conclusion that lay people by way of narrative could join a debate that had been closed to them and open only to “experts” and politicians (p. 13). Allowing the public a place in the debate also allowed them to join “the quest for the good life” (p. 18). Relating this to the culture-centered approach one can note that people’s health meanings and narratives of defecation needs and desires must be considered as authentic, valuable contributions to the solution of the problem. Experts alone, whether they are health
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