A Story to Live

Recently I heard a very interesting presentation by Antonio Damasio http://www.usc.edu/programs/neuroscience/faculty/profile.php?fid=27 , a behavioral neurologist from the University of Southern California and author of the upcoming book Self Comes to Mind.  Damasio talks about how each of us imagines what the story of our life will be.  We then proceed, through education, work and/or personal relationships  to make that “story”  happen.  Damasio also tells us that we may be forced or choose to re-write our story as circumstances overtake us.   He says, "You are constantly rearranging the narrative of your life, …and  you're rearranging is a function of the experiences that you have had and as what you imagine your experiences in the future ought to be."

Let me give you an example of a life story and the “rearranging [of] the narrative” that you may be familiar with.   Patrick "Pat" Tillman (November 6, 1976 – April 22, 2004) was a football player who left his professional NFL sports career and enlisted in the US Army in June 2002, in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.  He joined the Army Rangers and served multiple tours in combat before he died in the mountains of Afghanistan.   I am sure that Pat Tillman had spent much of his high school and college years imagining and writing the story of  a professional football career in the NFL.  He undoubtedly spent much of his life pursuing that story.   Then 9-11 happened and that circumstance caused him to choose to re-write his story.   From a NFL All-Pro Defensive Back to a US Army Ranger - Pat Tillman chose to re-write his life story with unfortunately tragic results- Pat Tillman was killed in combat.

Developmental psychology tells us that as young adults many of us have identified the professional and personal paths we intend to follow.  From Damasio’s perspective we have imagined and written our life story.  For some of us the story of our life proceeds just as we wrote it.  For others some circumstance that was never planned on, perhaps a marriage, the birth of a child, a divorce, a death or other life changing circumstance has caused the story to be re-written in a way we may never have imagined.  Sometimes that “re-arranging of the narrative” provides opportunities we may never have dreamed of, other times we find an inner strength that would have gone undiscovered, and sometimes tragedy results.  But none the less the life-story does continue on.

As I thought about Damasio’s ideas and how it might related to the work we do every day, I considered the concept of “recovery” and what is we do to help the clients we serve.  Although there are many perceptions and definitions of recovery, William Anthony, Director of the Boston Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation http://www.bu.edu/cpr/ seems to have developed the cornerstone definition of mental health recovery. Anthony (1993) identifies recovery as " a deeply personal, unique process of changing one’s attitudes, values, feelings, goals, skills and/or roles.  It is a way of living a satisfying, hopeful, and contributing life even with limitations caused by the illness. Recovery involves the development of new meaning and purpose in one’s life as one grows beyond the catastrophic effects of mental illness."   

Until I came across Damasio’s work I am not sure I could have clearly and simply articulated exactly how “recovery” manifests itself.  Damasio’s  work suggests that while we are unable to change the circumstance of mental illness that has overtaken their lives  we can help our clients to re-imagine and re-write the story of their lives.  We can help our clients to develop the skills necessary to live in the community and to manage their own illness.  Each “story” is a personal and unique process and each person writes his/her own definition of recovery.  So  for me this is the take-away-  as I work with  clients I will now give  more time to understanding the story and, now that the client has embarked on recovery, how he/she is “re-arranging the narrative” how  I might be able to help with the re-imagining and the re-writing of the story.

Be Well!