Narrative Trajectories of Women Survivors of Child Maltreatment: Redemptive and Contaminating Sequences
Sandra P. Thomas, RN, PhD, FAAN, Nursing, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, TN, USA
We used narratives to reconstruct chronologies of women abuse survivors’ paths through life, defining turning points and sequences of events following transitional, pivotal points. Using McAdams’ method for examining life stories we identify intentionally positive actions by survivors, and the sequences that followed. The two types of sequences Mc Adams defines are (a) redemptive (relating positive outcomes, such as better relationships, gaining safety, achievements, etc.), and (b) contaminating. Contaminating sequences reveal negative outcomes following attempts to help or change one’s constricted, traumatizing circumstances. The diversity of trajectories in this group of women survivors is well articulated in verbatim quotes, and brief case summaries as exemplars of each type of sequence. Articulated participants’ accounts may contain several narrations of a key life event, told at different interview points. This informed the trajectory analysis as well, providing ways that abuse and healing are narrated for different purposes, or from different self-perspectives of the participant. Often the “severity” of abuse as traditionally gauged is not correspondent to the personal perception of damage, and similarly, of the magnitude of negativity faced. Attributions about, and aftereffects of abuse, influence decision points and transitions confronted in recovery, in addition to traumatic events as originally experienced. Participants demonstrated great diversity in patterns of facing, interpreting, describing and overcoming adversities as manifested in private worlds of abuse and neglect. Clinical implications for adolescence and adulthood as opportune for change will foster discussion about potential interventions.