Interpreting Pain: On Women’s Embodiment and Dialogical Self-Understanding

Abstract

The experience of chronic pain can disrupt an understanding of oneself in terms of ability and possibility. In response, the pain sufferer needs an understanding conversation partner to help reinterpret their sense of self. Yet women in pain often encounter neglect, disbelief, or worse in today’s medical institutions. They may end up seeking the authoritative pronouncement of a diagnosis rather than a partner in recovery. We must develop new language and new relationships within the medical field for helping women in pain renegotiate their self-understanding and reinvigorate their engagement with the world and others through dialogue and play.