Life stories and shared experience

Area of Science:

• Medical Anthropology
• Sociology of Health
• Qualitative Research Methods

Background:

• Illness narratives are crucial in understanding how individuals ascribe meaning to suffering.
• Personal stories are fundamental to human experience and understanding, serving as coping strategies.
• Therapeutic groups often utilize personal storytelling for shared problem-solving.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the social and processual nature of personal narratives within Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) groups.
• To identify and examine various genres of personal narratives shared in AA meetings.
• To explore how these narratives contribute to individual and collective identity formation in therapy.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative study based on observations of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Minnesota Model treatment for alcoholism in Denmark (1990-1993).
• Analysis of personal narratives shared within AA group settings.
• Focus on interpersonal relationships and the construction of shared identity.

Main Results:

• Identified diverse genres of personal narratives within AA meetings.
• Demonstrated that narrative sharing operates on individual, social, and cultural levels.
• Found that ongoing storytelling in AA exists on a continuum between autobiography and myth.

Conclusions:

• The telling of personal narratives in Alcoholics Anonymous is a dynamic social process.
• This narrative process merges individual and collective experiences within a therapeutic framework.
• Shared storytelling in AA contributes significantly to the creation of a collective identity and therapeutic outcomes.