Short Essay - In response to Chapter 8 of "The Wounded Storyteller" - Pastoral Care

In response to "The Wounded Story Teller" "Chapter 8 - by Arthur Frank

So first, I have some comments and thoughts regarding this chapter's assertions and concepts. Regarding the discussion of embodied paranoia - the threats facing ill people are not just these existential kinds of threats, such as being tethered to a machine, or the loss of bodily autonomy and decision-making ability - but I would argue that very tangible and visceral threats are also present that feed this paranoia - the threat of losing one's job or employability, the threat of loss of health insurance due to loss of income, homelessness, and hunger. These are very real possibilities and are part of that social aspect of illness and suffering that Arthur Kleinman and Eric Cassell discuss. The author intimates at this point when he states:

 “Disease is all too effective as a journalistic metaphor for social problems - crime, poverty, drug use, inflation - because disease metaphors tap the intuitive connection between internal threats to the body and external threats. Embodied paranoia reflects a blurring of internal and external: everything has potential to threaten”. 

He then also says : 

“When illness happens, the disease carries a metonymic overload that compounds suffering. The disease is fully real in itself; the tip of the iceberg is still real ice. And the disease is a part standing for a larger whole, the external threats. Some of these threats, like fear of “cheechee” are related to the disease, while other fears of being made a victim have no necessary relation but are summoned up nonetheless”. 

However…I would assert that these fears of being made a victim by external threatening forces are not unrelated - these are very real and related fears if we consider illness to be a very socially mediated state, as Kleinman considers it. 

I am also not sure that suffering that is unanswered is useless…as if the only “usefulness” of suffering is for it to be used as the locus for healing practices and narratives to take place, or that it somehow has to provide some utility to the sufferer, in specific ways that relate to some externally recognizable benefit or “personal growth” project. This is a very utilitarian and academic view of suffering, and those who adhere to this idea probably could use some pastoral care! Sometimes the lessons that suffering offer are actually that of deconstruction without hope of reconstitution. This kind of suffering, which might be considered useless, is actually quite possibly the MOST useful as it speaks to that universal human aspect of suffering, and it’s not just a human universal, but a universal universal. Everything falls apart, and ultimately we must come to grips with this and ultimately make our peace with the ultimate stripping of our humanity, down to that nugget at our center that is our soul, our connection with God, Nirvana, or whatever it is that you want to call it. I think that this illustrates the difficulty that can arise when trying to draw on secular/academic literature regarding things that in a spiritual sense, might be considered supernatural, and not rational. 

The “wound as half opening” is a metaphor Frank uses to describe this experience of human suffering and the ways it allows for connection and invasion with and by other humans and external forces. . It suggests that suffering is not something that is entirely negative, but rather it can be a source of growth and transformation.  Frank argues that suffering can be a way of opening ourselves up to new possibilities and understandings. He writes, "The wound is a place of possibility, a place where we can begin to tell our stories in new ways." The social aspects of illness and disability are also important to consider when thinking about the wound as half opening. As Cassels argues,, illness and disability can be seen as social experiences, as well as physical ones. As someone with a physical/mobility disability I can attest to the fact that the social environment, which is a product of our cultural understandings of what is normal, and how the world ought to be, is one of the MOST limiting factors for me, not my disability itself. From cars that aren’t designed to transport a wheelchair easily, to buildings, streets, and other structures that actually impede my ability to move freely through the world as other people do - these are things that limit my interactions with the world, not my wheelchair. Jobs that require people to be in congregate settings during a pandemic also limited my ability to work during the pandemic, causing me a great deal of suffering that did not need to happen. 

That being said, The ways in which we can learn from suffering aren’t something we can just put on a list and call it “done”. Some people find that suffering can lead to a deeper understanding of themselves and the world around them. Others find that suffering can help them to develop compassion for others. Still others find that suffering can lead to a sense of purpose or meaning in life. Ultimately, the way in which we learn from suffering is probably determined by a whole host of things, personal experience, family experiences, cultural background, religious background, education, social environment, etc. I do want to address that idea of useless suffering one last time too - I have suffered an awful lot of pain and illness in my life, and I have found all of it to be really instructive. The illnesses I have are progressive and incurable, and I think that in the face of this, the thing I have learned the most is to love others, and to love this life, as I understand it will not always “be”. And the more “useless” my suffering becomes, the greater the depth of that love becomes. And I don’t just wonder if this “useless” suffering is the very transport into the infinite depths of love that many of us consider to be God.