Writing as Healing

Abstract

Research conducted with a writing group at an HIV clinic demonstrated how writing was healing. The research used grounded theory to help show patterns m the writers' discourse and in the narratives they constructed. Results showed that people in the writing group constructed four different kinds of narrative, each with a different healing function. These narratives included making sense of life in general, teaching others about AIDS, helping others with AIDS and generating a community of support, and gaining control and empowerment by claiming one's own experience and survival of AIDS. An individual healing occured as the writers wrote and witnessed their stories, whereas a social healing occured through the experience of forming a writing community.

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