Adults with Acquired Traumatic Brain Injury: A Theoretical Analysis from a Social Recognition Perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to illuminate the changeover process experienced by people with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and increase the understanding of social recognition occurring after injury. Fifteen persons, ages 28–56, with TBI have been in-depth interviewed. Data were first analyzed by latent-content analysis using a hermeneutic approach, and later re-contextualized within a matrix constructed from theories of social recognition. Results were initially structured into six themes and then re-described in terms of recognition, that is, the individual dimension, the legal dimension, and the value dimension. The conclusions suggest that people with TBI experience both recognition and non-recognition during the recovery process and later in life, living in society with the sequel of TBI. Such experiences are described on all dimensions.

KEYWORDS:

• traumatic brain injury
• social recognition
• abduction inference

This article is based on a doctoral thesis in disability research by the author (2006), carried out at the Swedish Institute for Disability Research (SIDR), Örebro University, Sweden. Thanks to Professor Keith Pringle at the School of Health Care and Social Welfare, Mälardalen University Collage, Sweden for proofreading the English language manuscript.