Gut Feelings: Chronic Illness and the Search for Healing

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Book Review

Gut Feelings: Chronic Illness and the Search for Healing

Catherine Garrett

ISBN: 9-042016-54-X 2005 166 pages Rodopi

Jane Shoebridge
Nursing (Social Science), Faculty of Health Sciences, Flinders University of South Australia, SA

This is Volume 16 of a series with the theme: ‘Making sense of Health, Illness and Disease'. Based on experiences and theories of chronic illness from autobiography, sociology, philosophy and, especially Catholic, theology, the project Gut Feelings makes an unusual addition to the health sociology literature.

The book is in two parts, each of four chapters. The first part blends stories of chronic illness with meanings given to pain and suffering from biography, social science, philosophy and the myths and tenets of the ‘great' formal religions. Part two deals with healing, a myriad remedies and healing rituals, their practical and spiritual significance in author Garrett's own life and in the lives of celebrated others. Much of the book is compiled from previously published articles interspersed with autobiography and other new material. Several chapters can stand alone as essays.

The book's central motif is represented by its frontispiece: a photograph of Jacob Epstein's dramatic sculpture of the angel supporting the lamed Jacob (the story of ‘Jacob and the Angel' from the ‘Old Testament' of the Judeo-Christian Bible, Genesis 32:24-32). This story harnesses the fact of suffering to its mythical significance as a test of faith; and, further, to its prompting a search for an ethical life.

In the first two chapters, Garrett details the evolution of her gut problems from child to adulthood. She weaves in theories of the gut from medicine, psychoanalysis and art. She tells how her first response to Epstein's sculpture resonated with sociologist Arthur Frank's (1995) interpretation of Jacob's story as ‘epitomis[ing] the human struggle with pain, identity and the divine' (2005:35). Garrett argues that ‘when we respond to the myths and symbols of art, we are using the human faculty called faith' (2005:37).

Chapter 3 distinguishes experiences of chronic pain from those of suffering which ‘distress [..] or disrupt [..] the entire person' (2005:43). Suffering can be linked to the divine soul and the secular self via Aristotle's image of the human being as soul. Garrett samples from the story of medieval saint Teresa of Avila to exemplify Aristotle's ideas. Garrett concludes this chapter questioning how health sociologist Charmaz can give secular understandings to research respondents' stories of suffering, when Garrett herself would attribute spiritual meaning.

This debate between secular and sacred meanings of suffering leads directly to chapter 4 on ‘Spirituality' with major emphasis on Christian theologies of suffering and more cursory coverage of teachings from Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam.

A cornucopia of remedies and rituals, most of which Garrett herself has tried, contributes to much of the intriguing, occasionally amusing material of chapters 5 and 6. She tries transcendental meditation, reiki, yoga and storytelling; a host of ‘new age' remedies including rapid eye movement, self hypnosis and acupuncture; and some more intensive orthodox treatments such as the talking cure of psychotherapy and the silent cure of religious retreat. Chapter 6 concludes with the most moving parts of the book, Garrett's pilgrimages to London, Geneva and Rome.

Chapter 7 explores healing effects of emotion on pain and suffering. Garrett discusses the diaries of Julian of Norwich, a fourteenth century woman mystic. Against Julian's spiritual experiences, Garrett places the rationally analytic work of sociologists Barbalet, Lupton and Kovel, and of psychoanalyst Lacan, arguing that these alternate sacred and secular approaches to understanding emotional life are all of value, even if the latter group downplay the role of emotions in healing. However Garrett is not satisfied to speak though mere rational analysis; like Julian she campaigns with and for spiritual passion.

Garrett's inspiration for understanding healing comes from four spiritual autobiographies: Julian of Norwich (14^th C), Teresa of Avila (16^th C), Thérèse of Lisieux (19^th C) and Dorothy Day of twentieth century America (founder of the Catholic workers' movement in 1933). In chapter 8 she traces their lineages back to St Augustine and St Paul (presuming her readers are familiar with these Christian teachers).

The book concludes with a philosophic discourse on the relationship between experience and knowledge-the outcome of which should ideally be wisdom-and a return to the meaning of healing through ‘quest' stories. She extends Arthur Frank's ‘quest' type of illness narrative, arguing there are at least four kinds: interpersonal, political, inward and contemplative; and identifies her own quest narrative as contemplative.

By the book's end, the reader's reward is to understand that Garrett's ethical quest is her enthusiasm to live fully and thereby displace her suffering with hope, joy and love. This involves transcending egocentric preoccupations in order to reach out and, following the philosopher Lévinas, take responsibility for others.

Garrett's work sits firmly within the inter- and multidisciplinary literature dealing with health and illness, pain and suffering, and healing; but its main theme of spirituality makes it an unusually significant contribution. For the sociologically secular soul, the book's emphasis on mysteries of faith may perplex and its normative presumption may irritate. However in a climate of political and social conservatism and apparent religious re-emergence, such a book should create intense discussion and debate.

Who might benefit from debating this book? Students in the health, welfare and theological vocations should certainly find this-and Arthur Frank's (1991, 2002, 1995) work to which Garrett freely acknowledges a deep debt-challenging and educative. Postgraduate students should find these resources particularly useful in research projects involving illness narratives. The endnotes in Gut Feelings are plentiful but the book needs an index and, ideally, a bibliography.

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