Healing Dramas and Clinical Plots: The Narrative Structure of Experience Book

This is simultaneously a dense and highly accessible book that deepens notions of illness narratives within health care. I especially appreciated Mattingly's weaving in of 'real life' stories of therapeutic interactions between occupational therapists and rehabilitation patients who are negotiating their way to some sort of healing. What I found somewhat irritating and forced in places was Mattingly's insistence on drawing parallels between these healthcare setting clinical narrative dramas/rituals and those of 'primitive' exotic (to us) communities in remote areas of the world. I realize that Mattingly is a medical anthropologist and probably feels compelled to honor her scholarly lineage, but I felt it detracted from the strength of her arguments.