Stories Are Medicine
  • The Power of Narrative
  • What is Deep Sadness?
  • What is Organic Inquiry?
  • The Participants
  • The Researcher's Story
  • The Individual Stories
  • The Group Story

Mali's Response

5/2/2012

 

Parker's Response

4/23/2012

 

Emily's Response

3/23/2012

 

Ann's Response

3/21/2012

 
This narrative is from a 70 year-old woman who has lived with depression for decades. She has a diagnosis of Bipolar II, and has written several books about her experiences. Her husband wrote a book for the spouses of people who are depressed, and they both speak and teach about their experiences to groups.

Edith's Response

3/20/2012

 

Elán's Reponse

3/18/2012

0 Comments

 
This narrative features poetry written by Elán Yardena, taken from a book of poetry she published called A Life Emerging: A Poetic Journey Out of Depression. Because of her position and the nature of the work she does, Elán had to be very, very careful about telling me her story, as knowledge of her battle could harm her professionally. The name she used in the study was the same nom de plume she used to publish her book. I do not know her true identity.
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Frida's Response

1/10/2012

 
Frida is a 57 year-old woman who is a survivor of severe childhood abuse. She has lived with depression her entire life, and has been committed to the process of healing from her trauma and moving, however slowly, toward wholeness and authentic expression of her feelings. She has a strong interest in Art Brut, and used the creation of the images in this narrative in service of exploring past pain through a creative lens.

Reverdia's Response

11/14/2011

 

Maya's Response

9/14/2011

 

Yemaya's Response

5/16/2011

 
At the time of this interview, Yemaya was 32 years old. She is a graduate student in psychology. Her multimedia narrative emphasizes the metaphors she uses to describe her experience of profound lows, and the relief she finds in sacred union, surrender, and trust.

    The Stories

    I took transcripts of each interview, photos or video I could collect from my co-researchers, their original poetry, art and other creative data to weave short multimedia narratives that reflected some part of their story.

    Each co-researcher was asked to prepare a creative response to a set of incubation questions about their experience of living with low moods, and I incorporated those creative responses into each of these narratives.

    These narratives are not intended to be taken literally, they are, depending upon the materials provided by the participant, an abstraction meant to uncover aspects of the experience that can not be communicated with written language.

    The date listed is the date the interview originally took place

    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    January 2012
    November 2011
    September 2011
    May 2011

Disclaimers, Etc.

This site is educational in purpose, and nothing presented here is meant to be taken as medical advice. 

The site and the content are provided as commentary on a study completed as part of a doctoral program. While some of the materials presented here were included in the formal dissertation, this site is not affiliated or connected with the university that approved the study.