Stewart, J. E. Living with Brain Injury: Narrative, Community and Women's Renegotiation of Identity. London: New York University Press. 2014. viii + 247pp $75.05 ISBN: 978–0–8147–6741–8 (hbk)

Abstract

This book is a useful addition to the body of literature that seeks to explore, through a sociological lens, both acquired brain injury and rehabilitation. Stewart ‘offers an analysis of extensive interviews conducted with 10 women at varying stages of recovering from and living with brain injury’ (p. 3). Stewart's focus upon the diverse and unique nature of each woman's life is particularly welcome, especially as much of the literature on acquired brain injury is largely medically orientated, which can serve to diminish and homogenise experiences following brain injury. Another aspect of the book that I particularly appreciated is the way it strays far away from a melancholic description of the women's identity. Through the use of terms such as re-authoring and negotiation to describe the identity of participants, Stewart seeks to attribute agency, creativity and complexity to the experiences of these women. This is important and is largely in contrast with ‘dominant narratives about disability, particularly brain injury, [which] negate complexity, agency, and creativity’ (p. 3). Stewart positions himself in terms of how he influenced both the research process and the resultant product. The book includes some lengthy extracts from interviews, which are largely presented verbatim or have only been very lightly edited. Thus, aspects of interviews such as lengthy pauses, stutterings, and so on, were amenable to analysis and the extraction of meaning. These, along with the inclusion of Stewart's responses to the questions, aid an understanding of the interview process and serve to further highlight his role in the interviews. The book explores some of the participants’ interesting and varied experiences, including their fights and struggles against specific barriers or forms of discrimination; their integration into the disability community; and their religious or spiritual experiences. The empirical data in the book are thoroughly interrogated, which results in unusually detailed insights into these woman's experiences. Stewart effectively tells a story about the lived experience of brain injury and rehabilitation through an exploration of the women's identity. This enables him to draw meaning from the experiences and reflect on the content of the interviews. The participants varied in age from 18 to 54 years and were interviewed from 6 months to 28 years post-injury (at the time of the first interview). This is a fairly wide range to include. The assertions that Stewart is able to make could, perhaps, have been solidified somewhat by including participants of a similar age and time span post-injury, thus allowing them to compare, reflect upon and make sense of their experiences in similar contexts. That said, it is not clear whether this would have been achievable in a reasonable time frame. However, it would have been interesting to hear Stewart's opinion on this aspect of the research design. In the final chapter Stewart suggests that ‘In the long run the marginalization, disqualification, and embarrassment – in fact the process of subjectification – imposed by culture were more disabling for these women than were their impairments.’ (p. 216) For me this interesting observation sums up the entire research project fairly accurately, in that it highlights Stewart's successful attempt to transfer the focus of the book away from the individual bodily deficits of the women. Stewart succeeds in shining a critical light upon the workings of society and in particular on the subjectification of disabled people. The experiences in this book emphasise how this subjectification occurs in the dominant discourses that direct both society as a whole and rehabilitation units in society. Stewart's book is appropriate for anyone interested in the sociological realms of impairment. It would be particularly appropriate for those interested in the lived experience of disability, as well as those who seek to appreciate the implications of impairment in terms of both stimulating struggles as well as moments of affirmation in the lives of disabled people.