(Un)doing gender in a rehabilitation context: a narrative analysis of gender and self in stories of chronic muscle pain

Abstract

Purpose: To explore how gender appears in the stories of self-told by men and women undergoing rehabilitation for chronic muscle pain. Method: The material, which consists of qualitative interviews with 10 men and 6 women with chronic neck pain, was analyzed from a gender sensitive perspective using narrative method. The analysis was inspired by Arthur Frank’s typologies of illness narratives (restitution, chaos and quest). Findings: The women’s stories displayed selves that were actively trying to transcend their former identity and life conditions, in which their pain was embedded. Their stories tended to develop from “chaos”, towards a quest narrative with a more autonomous self. The selves in the men’s stories appeared to be actively seeking a solution to the pain within a medical context. Framed as a restitution narrative, rooted in a biomedical model of disease, the voice often heard in the men’s stories was of a self-dependent on future health care. Our findings contribute greater nuance to a dominant cultural conception that men are more independent than women in relation to health care. Conclusion: Understanding the significance of gender in the construction of selves in stories of chronic pain may help to improve the health care offered to patients suffering from chronic pain.

Implications for Rehabilitation

• Patients tell stories that powerfully communicate their particular illness experiences.

• Cultural expectations of femininity and masculinity play a significant role with regard to how the patients construct their stories, which may be important to health professionals’ perceptions of the patients’ problem.

• Health care professionals should listen carefully to the patient’s own story and be sensitive to the significance of gender when trying to understand these people’s health problem.

• Femininity
• gender
• masculinity
• muscles
• pain

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the informants for sharing their stories with us, and the physiotherapists for their assistance to recruit participants to the study.