An Autoethnography About Recovering Awareness Following Brain Injury: Is My Truth Valid?. (January 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Shankar, Sneha
• Other Names: Lester Jessica Nina guest-editor.; Nusbaum Emily A. guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Qualitative inquiry. Volume 24:Number 1(2018)
• Page Start: 56
• Page End: 69
• Publication Date: 2018-01
• Subjects: autoethnography -- ethnographies -- methodologies -- recovery -- rehabilitation -- brain injury -- critical theory; Social sciences -- Methodology -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- Research -- Periodicals; 300.72
• DOI: 10.1177/1077800417728960
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1077-8004

Abstract

This autoethnography confronts the assumptions and treatment of patients who have had a traumatic brain injury (TBI). TBI may be followed by deficits that can impact a person's self-awareness, and I describe my experience with this symptom. In this personal poetic narrative, I provide a glimpse into how I experienced typical symptoms of brain injury and illustrate the complexity of recovery. I suggest patient voices are too often discredited, which goes against the medical framework of patient-centeredness. I provide a voice to the lived experience of brain injury and illuminate the dehumanizing nature of being a patient of this injury.