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The concept of therapeutic 'emplotment'

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  • Mattingly, Cheryl

Abstract

This paper considers the narrative structure of clinical action. I argue that clinical encounters involve clinician and patient in the creation and negotiation of a plot structure within clinical time. This clinical plot gives meaning to particular therapeutic actions by placing them within a larger therapeutic story. No therapeutic plot is completely pre-ordained, however. Improvisation and revision are necessary to its creation. In making a case for the narrative construction of lived time, of narratives that are created before they are told, this paper departs from the predominant mode of narrative analysis within medical anthropology that has focused on narrative discourse. Therapeutic emplotment is concretely considered through an interpretation of a single case, a clinical interaction between an occupational therapist and a head-injured patient.

Suggested Citation

  • Mattingly, Cheryl, 1994. "The concept of therapeutic 'emplotment'," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 811-822, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:38:y:1994:i:6:p:811-822
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    1. Rhodes, Tim & Bernays, Sarah & Terzic, Katarina Jankovic, 2009. "Medical promise and the recalibration of expectation: Hope and HIV treatment engagement in a transitional setting," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(6), pages 1050-1059, March.
    2. Ipsiroglu, Osman S. & McKellin, William H. & Carey, Norma & Loock, Christine, 2013. "“They silently live in terror…” why sleep problems and night-time related quality-of-life are missed in children with a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 76-83.
    3. Anthony T. Carter, 2008. "Creative providers: Counseling and counselors in family planning and reproductive health," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 19(59), pages 1969-2010.
    4. Eva Laerkner & Ingrid Egerod & Finn Olesen & Palle Toft & Helle Ploug Hansen, 2019. "Negotiated mobilisation: An ethnographic exploration of nurse–patient interactions in an intensive care unit," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(11-12), pages 2329-2339, June.
    5. Radley, Alan & Mayberry, John & Pearce, Melanie, 2008. "Time, space and opportunity in the outpatient consultation: 'The doctor's story'," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(7), pages 1484-1496, April.
    6. Lapum, Jennifer & Angus, Jan E. & Peter, Elizabeth & Watt-Watson, Judy, 2010. "Patients' narrative accounts of open-heart surgery and recovery: Authorial voice of technology," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(5), pages 754-762, March.
    7. Smit, Anri & Coetzee, Bronwynè Jo’sean & Roomaney, Rizwana & Bradshaw, Melissa & Swartz, Leslie, 2019. "Women's stories of living with breast cancer: A systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 231-245.
    8. Dumit, Joseph, 2006. "Illnesses you have to fight to get: Facts as forces in uncertain, emergent illnesses," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 577-590, February.
    9. Waldram, James B. & Hatala, Andrew R., 2015. "Latent and manifest empiricism in Q'eqchi' Maya healing: A case study of HIV/AIDS," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 9-16.
    10. Rhodes, Tim & Ruiz Osorio, Maria Paula & Maldonado Martinez, Adriana & Restrepo Henao, Alexandra & Lancaster, Kari, 2024. "Exhausting care: On the collateral realities of caring in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 343(C).
    11. Thomas, Felicity & Aggleton, Peter & Anderson, Jane, 2010. "'Experts', 'partners' and 'fools': Exploring agency in HIV treatment seeking among African migrants in London," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(5), pages 736-743, March.

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