Giving voice to my body: healing through narrating the disabled self

Abstract

In this paper, I argue that using autoethnography as a vehicle to narrate the disabled self could be therapeutic for disabled persons, since it could unlock the unconscious, silenced parts of the self. Disabled persons often keep quiet about the thorny segments of their lives, because they learn that it is too anxiety-provoking for nondisabled listeners. Yet, it is often in the painful stories of disabled persons where external and internal oppressions meet. Uncovering hidden truths will inevitably reveal an inaccessible and often hostile world and the myriad ways in which these find root in the psyche of disabled persons.

Points of Interest

• The notion that writing personal lifestories could be therapeutic is nothing new;

• In this paper I argue that writing a personal story, and making theoretical sense of experiences embedded within it, could be particularly therapeutic for disabled persons;

• Disabled persons often learn, from a very young age, to deny the painful parts of their experience;

• Writing about and reflecting upon personal experiences can help disabled persons to welcome these painful parts of their experience, that they are not aware of, back into their bodies.

Keywords:

• Autoethnography
• disability
• internalised oppression
• psychoanalysis

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Prof. Leslie Swartz for his guidance while I was fine-tuning this paper. You are an incredible mentor!

Disclosure statement

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