The Power of Memoirs on the Journey Toward Recovery

Abstract

People share and listen to stories of illness, trauma, and recovery as a powerful source of healing.  Memoirs reflect the intimate, emotional, and personal insights of the wounded storyteller based on their experience of illness and recovery, for sharing with others. Because memoirs are in written form, they also offer the opportunity for readers to learn from them in perpetuity. The present study examines the content of memoirs based on experiences of survivors of stroke, the majority of whom also have aphasia, a stroke-induced communication disorder. Over fifty memoirs of survivors of stroke were assembled for analysis, representing authors from twelve different nationalities, with balanced proportions of male and female authors. A set of representative quotes and content extracted from the memoirs illustrate three main themes. One theme was the threat to one’s identity following the traumatic onset of stroke and aphasia, and how one rises to that challenge. A second theme was how to achieve acceptance, including acceptance of one’s new life and post-stroke identity. A third theme centered on gratitude for survival and providing lessons for others on how one can cope and recover, as one expression of that gratitude. Findings hold implications for the potential universality of healing themes of identity reformulation, acceptance, and gratitude—across time, cultures, and genders—among survivors of illness and trauma.