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| Steven H. Cornelius Music and Stroke |
Today’s post is inspired by an article I just read: “Poststroke Depression: An Examination of the Literature” (1997). It’s not the catchiest title, but the piece got me thinking. As the colleague who sent it to me noted, the paper “illustrates the flaws in the conceptualization and assessment of [poststroke] depression, basically the failure to distinguish the components of depression (mood; somatic symptoms; self critical symptoms) and their differing origins (somatic may be symptoms of stroke, not depression) and different consequences.” I agree, but the real elephant in the room is that the scholarly literature undervalues, even ignores, the character of the stroke patient’s inner life.
One of my more frustrating experiences, especially during the early stages of my recovery, was caregivers treating my cognitive condition in a mechanical fashion, like so many broken bones needing to be set. In my experience, assessing a patient only in terms of deficits (as scaled against unattainable social norms) undermines self confidence, undermines the powers of self observation, and diminishes agency. (All of which can be plenty depressing.)
Yes, of course, I needed to find a way to heal if I was going to function successfully in the workaday world. In that, the caregivers were 100% correct. But my inner reality (though marked by perceptual idiosyncrasies, conceptual roadblocks, and expressive stasis) felt remarkably rich. It shouted for my attention. These cognitive experiences were once in a lifetime (I HOPE), but my caregivers seemed to consider them of no value. Consequently, I felt pressure to devalue them as well.
Happily, I resisted. My stroke experience taught me to pay deeper attention to (and place higher value on) my thinking processes. This constituted an important step in taking an objective measure of my place in the world.
See the original article:
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