Damaged Identities, Narrative Repair

by Hilde Lindemann Nelson

The nature of identity, especially of groups such as Gypsies, mothers, nurses, and transsexuals is explored by comparing the stories these groups express of themselves against the narratives written about them. ― Feminist Academic Press Hilde Lindemann Nelson focuses on the stories of groups of people—including Gypsies, mothers, nurses, and transsexuals—whose identities have been defined by those with the power to speak for them and to constrain the scope of their actions. By placing their stories side by side with narratives about the groups in question, Nelson arrives at some important insights regarding the nature of identity. She regards personal identity as consisting not only of how people view themselves but also of how others view them. These perceptions combine to shape the person's field of action. If a dominant group constructs the identities of certain people through socially shared narratives that mark them as morally subnormal, those who bear the damaged identity cannot exercise their moral agency freely. Nelson identifies two kinds of damage inflicted on identities by abusive group one kind deprives individuals of important social goods, and the other deprives them of self-respect. To intervene in the production of either kind of damage, Nelson develops the counterstory, a strategy of resistance that allows the identity to be narratively repaired and so restores the person to full membership in the social and moral community. By attending to the power dynamics that constrict agency, Damaged Identities, Narrative Repair augments the narrative approaches of ethicists such as Alasdair MacIntyre, Martha Nussbaum, Richard Rorty, and Charles Taylor.

Genres: Philosophy, Psychology

228 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2001

About the author

Hilde Lindemann is a Professor of Philosophy at Michigan State University. She has written books under the names Hilde Lindemann and Hilde Lindemann Nelson. She has coauthored a number of books with James Lindemann Nelson.

She is a former editor of Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy. She was also coeditor of Rowman & Littlefield's Feminist Constructions series and the general coeditor of the Reflective Bioethics series at Routledge.

A Fellow of the Hastings Center, her ongoing research interests are in feminist bioethics, feminist ethics, the ethics of families, and the social construction of persons and their identities.

Reviews

[Night Hobbit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Lindemann was one of my professors and her written word is nearly as wonderful as her presence in the classroom. This is a great work and should be required reading for all gender courses, feminist philosophy courses and for mature people of any gender.

[Šimon Michalčík · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dissertation can take you to interesting places, such that you'd likely never visit otherwise. I'm glad. In this book, the author slowly develops, breaks down and supports an exploration of COUNTERSTORIES, which to me remains the single most interesting concept after a year of narrative studies (possibly due to it being one of the reading list items that I somehow found the time for). I hope to be able to flash this newly-acquired vocab in a turtleneck-involving conversation before I forget it. I don't know if people more versed in texts of philosophy will find this as intriguing as I did, but perhaps they'd agree with me in that, due to the frequent repetitions of author's main points, it could have been 50 pages shorter and punchier.

[Jet R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alright THIS BOOK. I freaking love it, I love Nelson and her work (I know she divorced recently but am not up to date with her current name and have read her as Nelson therefore I will say Nelson).

Read it for my thesis and am using her theory on counter stories on the topic of migration. Literally so useful and insightful. Super applicable, especially combined with literary fiction which I am mainly using and focusing on in my thesis.

Highly recommend if you’re interested in narratives and oppression, and especially when wanting to learn more about narratives and oppression and how they not only affect each other, but also to see how the individual is affected and harmed.