Body Problem Model In Arthur Frank's The Wounded Story

Arthur Frank’s The Wounded Storyteller, a work on illness and illness narratives; part of it incorporates his body problem model. Frank explains that it is “the ways that a body-self responds to each problem” (29), which becomes a part of his definition of the illness narrative. Although, these “ideal types” are not what ill people fit into, but it is the “mixtures” (29) of them. For Frank this model allows for “a reflexive medium, a language for talking about what is particular in real bodies (29).” Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions, and the narratives (Jade and Minna’s stories) derived from the “Eating Disorders” website conforms to a certain extent to this aspect of Frank’s definition of an illness narrative, because they present features

In Jade’s story much of her narrative alludes to control, at first predictable control, she describes how she “began to purge dinner every night and then go run,” “eating or lack of was something [she] could control,” “[she] felt totally in control,” and her “anorexia was her coping skill.” Jade seems to be predictable in her control by having routines and regimens around her eating disorder. At first, she is monadic in other-relatedness by not telling her mother of her eating disorder. While it seems at first she would fit Frank’s disciplined body type, Jade states that she was apprehensive with health professionals and with this body type one has to be trusting of the physician. Although, she seems to become more contingent with control when she states that she cannot “control [the] disease, it controls [the person],” she realizes that forces in and around her cannot be controlled. Similarly, in Minna’s story her use of “my” and “I” suggests monadic in other-relatedness, she does not mention others that may be significant to her. Her discussion of the body and “feelings” suggest associated in body-relatedness in how she sees the body, her eating disorder, and the mind (regarding emotions and feelings) as united, relating, and affecting each other. Neither of these narratives conform to any one of Frank’s body types, but to a certain extent they retain some components to his body problem