Storytelling and Healing in The Wounded Storytellers by Franks

"I will put my words in his mouth and he will speak to them all" is a quote from Deuteronomy 18:18.

"The wounded storyteller's primary theme is centered around illness, but it has a deeper underlying context. The Wounded Storyteller is a thorough and comprehensive continuation of the multi-layered vision of healing. At the core, the author urges the reader to find their voice and communication as a fundamental ingredient to human understanding. This book communicates to all of us who are trying to figure out who we are, how to connect with other people, and are seeking to understand our relation to the world.

Sooner or later, we are all wounded storytellers who endure the suffering of the world, and as wounded storytellers, we are trying to survive and help others survive in a world that does not always make it easy. The wounded storyteller is the image of this wounded storyteller is, in actuality, an image of what it is to be human, and that storytelling is a natural part of being and understanding humankind.

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It is a form of communication that we have been practicing for thousands of years. Storytelling heals our inner selves and challenges our beliefs. It is an outlet for the silent and a way of communicating our experiences. The exchange of stories teaches us how to live. We are born and raised in stories, and stories aid us in comprehending our relation to others and to the world. They help us answer questions about ourselves, human existence, and provide a comforting source of meaning.

The art of storytelling is a correlation of testimony and witness. Testimony and witnessing are mutually dependent-one cannot exist without the other. Testimony implicates others in what they witness, thus it does not only affect those who receive it. Testimony is the story that is communicated through the witness. Testimony's essence is more of being than seeing. Embodiment is the essence of the witness, and witnessing always implies a relationship. Testimony calls on its witnesses to become communicative as 'the witness assumes a responsibility for telling what happened' (Frank, The Wounded Storyteller, 137). So in short, a wounded storyteller heals others through their story; those healed then become wounded healers. The beauty of this is that it is more than the delivery of information and one-sided about what is being said; people must think with it, be a part of what is happening. Through this, the deepest potential of interpersonal communication is expressed.

Arthur Frank spoke mostly about the voices of the ill, but his writings can be seen as an insightful teaching that can illustrate how the telling of stories is the epitome of self-disclosure, active listening, and dialogue; it is reciprocal. Storytelling engages the heart and imagination in such a way that a deeper level of listening is activated, which opens up the eyes of perception. While telling stories to communicate at an interpersonal level, the act of telling is a dual reaffirmation. Relationships with others are reaffirmed, and the self is reaffirmed (Frank, Wounded, 55). People create their perception of reality and form their personal identity through interpersonal bonds created by storytelling. There is something about stories that brings people together and fosters a feeling of togetherness. For storytelling is non-hierarchical; it unlocks feelings and emotions, as well as thought processes. And hence, it helps to build relationships and trust; fundamental building blocks of true, honest, and pure communication.

To support Frank's emphasis on sharing and listening, one may look at grounded conversation readiness such as Bourdieu's convergence theory. Often, as Frank looks around (AFSE LOOK, 83), we perceive that communication occurs through the exchange of symbols and their meanings. Through the sharing of stories, meaning is derived from collective ideas and out of social interaction. A story can enfold the isolated being into a collective narrative of a fellowship. Not only does narrative create communion, but it also plays a role in the formation of an individual's narrative strategy of recovery and how shared ideas, thoughts, and hopes can create shared meanings, a shared reality, and a sense of interconnectedness: stories have the ability to form remarkable unity. Unity has the ability to form remarkable relations; relation to the self, relation to meaning, relation to life, and most importantly, one's relation to others that share the same worldly affliction.

Both listening to others and telling our own stories, we become who we are - ranked, wounded, and inviting others to recognize themselves through the experiences and voices they hear. Being and listening is not something that comes easily, but when stories are told and shared, the bond between people and their shared experiences widens. Altruistically, the act of storytelling allows us to give ourselves generously and wholly - it is a contribution of tears, passion, values, wisdom, and experience. The gift of a whole person, the power to engage and change us as humans. Carl Rogers wrote, "the goal of communication is the accurate understanding of self and others, and that understanding can only happen through genuine self-disclosure" (Littlejohn, Theories, 249).

The basis of storytelling is self-disclosure but, more importantly, the notion that by sharing through the act of storytelling, we are all equal, and the relationship produced by this is one of mutuality. This is the core of Martin Buber's concept of an "I-Thou" relationship and the purest form of dialogue. When thinking with, rather than about the concept of the wounded storyteller and its implications, we can communicate on a deeper level with those who are most important to us. It is clear that we are all intricately and wonderfully connected to the self and the other, and sharing reinforces this connection. More importantly, it makes us aware of the connection and the possibility of mutuality and unity. As Rachel Naomi Remen wrote, "My wound evokes your healer. Your wound evokes my healer. My wound enables me to find you with your wound where you have the illusion of having become lost.

-Rachel Naomi Remen

References:

1. Buber, Martin. I and Thou. Translated by Ronald Gregor Smith. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1958.
2. Frank, Arthur W. The Wounded Storyteller. Chicago, linois: The University of Chicago Press, 1995.
3. Griffen,Em. A First Look at Communication Theory with Conversations with Communication Theorists. New York. 2002
4. Littlejohn, s. Theories of Human Communication. California: Wadsworth Publishing,1992