"They brought you back to the fact you're not the same": Sense of self after traumatic brain injury

This paper considers contexts following traumatic brain injury, exploring what may be at stake when dominant expectations predict a ‘lost’ or ‘broken’ self. I explore stories co-constructed with one young man and his mother to illustrate their personal and intersubjective understandings of identity, at times conflicting, within family interactions and when encountering normative practices of neurorehabilitation clinicians. The ower relations portrayed confront this man’s narrative attempts to align his present and pre-injury self, including standard assessments delineating change, administered by healthcare professionals. I consider a need for greater attention to interaction-generated disruption to sense of self, wthin contemporary conceptualisations of ‘person-centred care’

“Medically discharged”: forced exit due to injury, health and wellbeing

The second story of the book is provided by Jack, who experienced an injury in the first 5 years of his military service. Jack’s journey starts with his experience of joining the army, followed by a brief description of how he was injured and then culminates in his exit via medical discharge, due to a non-combat related injury. Jack helps us to understand the feeling of rejection from the armed forces and how in some ways this makes the transition back to civilian life, at least for Jack, slightly easier. In the literature that follows, we explore a snippet of theory and research which focuses on sudden and unexpected transition and its impact on our identity. We also discuss the literature in the context of forced/involuntary military exit, both for non-combat and combat related injuries