Surrounded by text: the meaning of health represented through the texts of life. An interpretative process

Abstract

Our omnipresent reflective worlds invite interpretation through the incalculability and types of text that surrounds us during our daily lives. We as human beings have no choice but to acknowledge this bombardment of texts as our obligatory and oblivious day-to-day engagements or be in denial of them because, as their meaning has not become relevant and interpreted within our lives. These texts of life will continue to appear regardless of whether through an interpersonal encounter within our taken-for-granted lives, as researcher through the recounting of a research a research participant’s lived experience of something, or of a form of “art” that uniquely somehow “speaks to us”. Patients, clinicians, and researchers are offered windows, images, narratives, metaphors, or other creative expression into the complex experiences that can be explored and interpreted to help understanding complex health conditions. Chronic pain and cancer an example of these but the text associated with these transcend their medicalization to include the ontological pain associated with the day-to-day distress these can create. This presentation offers the personal and academic reflections as a researcher and a person who lives with chronic pain and is currently undergoing a second round of chemotherapy for cancer. By finding a common ground of understanding the clinical and life experiences of living with chronic health conditions becomes mutually more accessible and may enhance the treatment of the person. The first step it to help create awareness that text and interpretation skills can benefit the clinician, the patient, and researchers.