“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside of you,” Maya Angelou
Storytelling is an underused and powerful tool in our suicide prevention toolbox. Our individual narratives are “building blocks” for our collectively shared representations of the past and our projections for the future (Hancox, 2011; Carvalho et al, 2017). When our stories about suicide collide and reconcile with one another on an interpersonal level and across communities, they start to illuminate the nuances of underlying themes and concerns, especially among marginalized groups. Stories of people living through suicide attempts, suicide intensity and suicide loss challenge the misinformation and silence that embodies the perceptions that drive isolation and discrimination.
Intersectionality and Storytelling
According to Merriam-Webster, “intersectionality” is defined as “the complex, cumulative way in which the effects of multiple forms of discrimination (such as racism, sexism, and classism) combine, overlap, or intersect especially in the experiences of marginalized individuals or groups.” To date, this complex interaction has often been overly simplified in suicide prevention due in large part to the limited perspectives given from privileged people who have held positions of authority in the field of suicidology. In order to expand these perspectives, we need to examine the many cultural scripts and diverse experiences that drive suicidal intensity, and listen to the many ways people have found pathways through despair and suicide grief. By appreciating the full question “Who AM I?” we find new opportunities and complexities in the conversation of suicide prevention. These learnings happen at both individual and community levels.
Self-Empowerment
Often our internal construct of ourselves is learned through conversations we have with others related to our strengths, knowledge and ability to overcome challenges (Vromans & Schweitzer, 2015). Because of this impact of “many voices of the self” or different storylines are operating at the same time. Thus, the narrative identity is dynamic as the self is constantly re-composing based on context and community. In other words:
“The self is a collection of stories about relationships — a multitude of voices. Gaining mastery over the voices of the self allows for empowerment. We ask, ‘who are the storytellers in your head?’” (Mehl-Madrona, 2017).
When our self narrative is dependent on a community that holds prejudicial beliefs, as in the case of people who have had lived experience with suicide and other disenfranchised groups, problematic views of the self emerge. Valentine (2016) explains the phenomena of restrictive framing thus, “Representational power is not equally shared, which makes participation in the redefinition and recounting of self-images especially significant for marginalized communities who cannot identify with dominant representations…” (p. 3).
Many marginalized communities have understood for generations the power of storytelling in healing and empowerment. Many have noticed that stories have the power to transform our lives and shift our inner voices from victim and chaos to redemption and honor. The spiritual journey and healing use of storytelling has been at the cultural center of many indigenous peoples including the Maori, Africans, Mongolians, Aborigines, and Inuit for hundreds, if not thousands of years, and there is much we can learn from the oldest living cultures on earth. Paula Gunn Allen, a Laguna/Sioux writer describes “medicine stories” as ceremonial narratives that alter states of consciousness — creating connection between body and spirit. In other words, language in the form of narrative is medicine (ardenhegele, 2017). The lessoned learned from these native traditions and other diverse groups who employ storytelling to heal tell us these values and practices are portable across cultures.
Building Community, Changing Culture and Social Movements
When people listen to stories, communities are formed and pull together. Shared experiences become a profound source of validation and consolidation of learning (Prasetyo, 2017). We are co-constructed by relationships in community and the stories that arise as a result. Stories are the mortar in the bridges we build between groups.
Historically, storytelling has been a participatory event in many cultures (Temple, 2018), where people are invited to make meaning together, forge trust and strengthen a sense of democracy: “Even though storytelling is a traditional means of delivering knowledge, wisdom and culture, it has a central role in social movements because it constructs agency, shapes identity and motivates action.” (p. 2, Prasetyo, 2017).
Thus, stories play an essential role in social justice. The stories that build momentum have the capacity to shape national policy and even rewrite history, such as the #MeToo movement of sexual trauma (Pazzanese & Walsh, 2017). Other social causes like aboriginal communities fighting against racism (e.g., The Forgotten Australians in Hancox, 2011) or fighting for cultural protectionism (Dickinson, 2012) have also had success in building momentum with storytelling. Social movements are really collective stories of resistance built on the axis of common purpose (Turgut, 2019). Like these examples, stories can then become our best weapon in the war against the social injustice connected to suicidal despair.
