Story-telling, women's authority and the "Old Wife's Tale": "The Story of the Bottle of Medicine".

The focus of this article is a single personal narrative ­ a Shetland woman's telling of a story about two girls on a journey to fetch a cure for a sick relative from a wise woman. The story is treated as a cultural document which offers the historian a conduit to a past that is respectful of indigenous woman-centred interpretations of how that past was experienced and understood. The "story of the bottle of medicine" is more than a skilful telling of a local tale; it is a memory practice that provides a path to a deeper and more nuanced understanding of a culture. Applying perspectives from anthropology, oral history and narrative analysis, three sets of questions are addressed: the issue of authenticity; the significance of the narrative structure and storytelling strategies employed; and the nature of the female performance. Ultimately the article asks what this story can tell us about women's interpretation of their own history.

Bruteau's philosophy of spiritual evolution and consciousness: foundation for a nursing cosmology.

The ontological foundation of the modern world view based on irreconcilable dichotomies has held hegemonic status since the dawn of the scientific revolution. The post-modern critique has exposed the inadequacies of the modern perspective and challenged the potential for any narrative to adequately ground a vision for the future. This paper proposes that the philosophy of Beatrice Bruteau can support a foundation for a visionary world view consistent with nursing's respect for human dignity and societal health. The author discusses the key concepts of Bruteau's perspective on societal evolution based on an integrated study of science, mathematics, religion, and philosophy. This perspective is discussed as a foundation to move beyond the dichotomous influence of the modern world view and the deconstructive critique of the post-modern perspective. The author suggests spiritual evolution and a participatory consciousness as an ontological foundation for a cosmology congruent with nursing's social mandate.

Healing options during the plague: survivor stories from a fourteenth-century canonization inquest.

Witness testimonies in the 1363 canonization inquest for Countess Delphine de Puimchel help us explore differing reactions to the first two waves of plague in 1348 and 1361, the diverse social and healing networks available to the sick, and the importance of affect in the healing process. Every witness in the inquest had lived through both the 1348 and 1361 epidemics. Their testimonies show that sufferers actively sought out healing even when they feared that none existed, healing practitioners continued to care for the sick through both waves of epidemic, and emotion played an important role in sufferers' healing. Their language allows us to look at the interaction between miracle and medicine, the interaction of healing practitioners, and the expectations of sufferers during severe epidemics in the later Middle Ages.

El mito fundacional de la homeopatía argentina. La Revista Homeopatía, Buenos Aires (1933-1940) / The myth fundacional of the Argentine homeopathy. The Magazine Homeopathy, Buenos Aires (1933-1940)

El presente artículo da cuenta de la construcción identitaria-histórica en la institución de Homeopatía que actualmente es la más importante de la Argentina (y la más antigua de las vigentes). Se construyen dos ejes analíticos: por un lado, la construcción de un mito fundacional que trace un hilo genealógico entre las «divinidades» de la medicina, y por otro, la mitificación de la figura de Hahnemann, padre fundador de la disciplina. A través de ambos ejes se explica cómo losdiscursos de la revista creaban un sostén simbólico para la débil coyuntura en la que se procuran consolidar legalmente como institución (AU)

The present article analyzes the historical-identitary construction in the older and most important institution of Homeopathy in Argentina. Two analytical axes are constructed: on the one hand, the construction of a foundational myth that outlines a genealogical thread between the «divinities» of the medicine, and on the other hand, the mitification of Hahnemann, founding father of the discipline. Using both axes we explain how the discourses of the journal were creating a symbolicsupport for the weak conjuncture in which they tried to be consolidated legally as an institution (AU)

Some historical conditions of narrative work.

Written to honor the immense contribution of Michael White as a leader in the development of narrative therapy, this historical essay contrasts the origins of psychoanalysis, family therapy and narrative therapy. Changes in the understanding of therapeutic strategies, methods of training and supervision, styles of leadership, the involvement of audiences in the therapeutic and training processes, and conceptions of the nature of the mind are described. A style of direct demonstration of methods, especially of the formulation of questions, is important in narrative work. The central master-role of the therapist in analysis and family therapy is replaced in narrative work by eliciting local knowledge, and the recruitment of audiences to the work. This is consistent with narrative therapy's "de-centered" image of the therapist.

O trauma psíquico e o paradoxo das narrativas impossíveis, mas necessárias / The psychical trauma and the paradox of the impossible but necessary narrations

Considerando-se, à luz das contribuições freudianas mais tardias, que o traumático, entendido como excesso pulsional, estaria situado além da capacidade de representação psíquica, exploramos neste artigo a estreita articulação entre trauma e "indizível". Para tal, são retomados alguns aspectos centrais da teorização psicanalítica sobre o trauma, aspectos relacionados com a sua dimensão "intransmissível". Segundo esta visada, o trauma constitui um vivido que ultrapassa a capacidade psíquica de apropriação e de recalcamento. Nosso objetivo é mostrar como a ideia de uma narrativa impossível, mas absolutamente necessária - eixo central do presente artigo - parece aplicar-se perfeitamente ao sofrimento indizível posto em cena a partir da experiência traumática, e que torna tão fundamental a paradoxal tarefa de narrá-la.(AU)

In this paper we examine the strict articulation between trauma and the "unsayable", taking into account that in the light of the latest Freudian contributions, the traumatic, understood as drive excess, would be situated beyond the capacity of psychical representation. For that, we analyze some central features of psychoanalytical theorizing on trauma, related to its "untransmissible" dimension. From that perspective, trauma constitutes an experience that exceeds the psychical capacity to appropriate and to repress. Our aim is to point out that the idea of an impossible, though absolutely necessary, narration - central axis of this paper - appears to fit the unsayable pain introduced by the traumatic experience, and makes essential the paradoxical task of narrating it.(AU)

Medical miracles and the longue durée.

The hematologist-historian author became interested in the nature 'medical miracles', following a request to write a report on a set of bone marrows that was sent to the Vatican as a possible miracle cure in a cause for canonization. She questioned the prevalence of medical miracles, their structure, and relationship to other 'official' miracles that are recognized by the Church. Evidence was drawn from a variety of sources: oral testimony of pilgrims at feast day celebrations, ex voto paintings, and 160 miracle files in 67 canonization records of the Vatican Archives. Some changes can be detected through time, but the results also testify to remarkable longue durée in the healing experience: the patterns of suffering and despair, the gestures of pleading, the presence of beds and dreams, the astonishment of the caregivers, and above all the simultaneous recourse to medicine and religion both.

Life, death, and humor: approaches to storytelling in Native America.

Edith Turner has been studying healing as a sensitive, spiritually attuned participant-observer for a long time. Despite her academic background, experiential learning and knowing are important parts of Turner's approach to research. Her efforts to understand healing have taken her on journeys to Africa, Mexico, Ireland, and more recently, Alaska's North Slope. In these contexts, she has experienced healing offered by others, and learned to heal in various traditional ways herself. In her book, The Hands Feel It (1996), Turner focuses on the role that touch and spirit presence have in healing in a North Slope Iñupiat community. However, her book makes clear that narrative and storytelling are important parts of the healing process, as well. In this paper, Turner elaborates on some aspects of the connection between narrative and healing based on her North Slope experience.

Diving down: ritual healing in the tale of The Blind Man and the Loon.

Some stories enjoy a very widespread distribution in the North. Anthropologists and folklorists have long collected and analyzed these stories, and scrutinized their regional variants. Craig Mishler taps into this longstanding scholarly tradition as he looks at the widespread story of "The Blind Man and the Loon." However, he goes beyond analyzing the form of this tale to explore what gives it healing properties. He wants to know why this story has become part of virtually every Native storyteller's repertoire throughout the Arctic and Subarctic. One answer is that the main character and events of the story evoke the undeserved suffering that shapes the human condition everywhere. Much of the story's power stems from its depiction of a ritual for healing the handicapped, thereby becoming a medicinal oral text. Additional power comes from the wide range of local and regional forms that adapt it to local sensibilities.

The transformative power of story for healing.

One of our goals in this session was, not just to talk about the healing power of narrative, but to experience it as well. Louise Profeit-LeBlanc is one of the presenters we invited specifically because of her skills as a storyteller. She has been heavily involved for several years as both an organizer and a participant in the Yukon Storytelling Festival, held every year in late May in Whitehorse. Woven into her presentation is a useful framework for differentiating various kinds of stories. As she tells us a series of stories, she takes us through a wide range of emotions from grief and loss to laughter and awe. For each of her stories, she gives us some personal contextual information that adds to the story's meaning and helps us appreciate its significance. Her final story, in particular, is the kind of traditional story that has probably existed for a very long time. Such stories may be told with slightly different emphases, depending on the occasion, but they carry wisdom and value for every generation that hears them.