“My life disappeared in illness”: bipolar disorder and themes in narrative identity

ABSTRACT

Bipolar Disorder (BD) has substantial consequences for the course of life and the formation of self and identity. In the present study, we extended the existing literature by examining narrative identity. Fifteen female outpatients with remitted BD and fifteen non-clinical control participants described past and future chapters in their life stories. The chapters were coded for agency, communion, redemption and contamination. Patients diagnosed with BD described their past chapters with lower agency, lower communion and more contamination compared to the control group. Contrary to our expectations, the future chapters described by the BD patients did not differ significantly from the control group. A focus on narrative identity may contribute to understanding the disorder and inspire interventions targeting personal recovery.

KEYWORDS:

• Bipolar disorder
• narrative identity
• life story
• themes

Acknowledgements

A special thanks to the participants who shared their life stories for this study. Thanks to Anne Cecilie Juul Johansen for her help with coding the life story chapters. The study was supported by a grant to the third author (VELUX33266). The first and third authors are affiliated with CON AMORE, which was funded by the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF) Grant DNRF89.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Danmarks Grundforskningsfond [grant number DNRF89]; Velux Fonden [grant number VELUX33266].