A Review through Dialogue: Ruthann Knechel Johansen’s “Listening in the Silence, Seeing in the Dark: Reconstructing Life after Brain Injury”

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18432/ari29371

Keywords:

concussion, traumatic brain injury, poetic inquiry, life writing, arts-based research

Abstract

As educators, we never know what stories our students may be carrying with them. This book holds insights and treasures for anyone who has been witness to or experienced the hard fight back from a near fatal trauma and the resulting loss of identity. As educators, researchers, and parents it is important to understand the difficult struggle of returning to life after suffering from a traumatic brain injury. This book is a beautiful and heart-wrenching testament to that struggle, and the ripple-effect through family, friends, and community when circumstance changes an individual’s life in an instant. Ruthann Knechel Johansen has opened up many spaces which allow for contemplation, examination, and ultimately a dialogue in response to her son’s car accident and subsequent coma and traumatic brain injury.

Author Biography

Bonnie Lynn Nish, University of British Columbia

Bonnie Nish is the Executive Director of Pandora’s Collective Outreach Society, a charitable organization in the literary arts, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Bonnie has a Masters in Arts Education from Simon Fraser University and is currently pursuing a PhD in Language and Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia. Bonnie is an Expressive Arts Therapist who has worked with at-risk populations for the last 20 years. Bonnie’s first book of poetry “Love and Bones” was released by Karma Press in 2013. Her book, “Concussion and Mild TBI: Not Just Another Headline,” an anthology of concussion-related stories, was published by Lash and Associates in August 2016. Her research interests lead her to a road of discovery through poetic and autobiographical inquiry into recovery from trauma and the implications for those pursuing an academic career.

References

Dobson, M. (2012). Poetic Inquiry: A way of finding out by finding in. The International Journal of the Arts in Society, 6(5), 129-137. https://doi.org/10.18848/1833-1866/CGP/v06i05/36082

Johansen Knechel, R. (2002). Listening in the silence, seeing in the dark: Reconstructing life after brain injury. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.

Leggo, C. (2005). Autobiography and identity: Six speculations. Vitae Scholasticae: The Journal of Educational Biography, 22(1), 115-133.

Misak, C. (2004). The critical care experience: A patient’s view. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 170(4), 357–359. https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.200403-309OE

Rocker, G. M., Cook D. J., & Shemie, S. D. (2006). Brief review: Practice variation in end of life care in the ICU: implications for patients with severe brain injury. Canadian Journal of Anesthesia, 53(8), 814-9. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03022799

Thiele, B. & Weiss, G.D. (1967). What a wonderful world. [Recorded by Louis Armstrong]. On What a wonderful world. [Vinyl]. Camden, NJ: Bluebird. (1968).

Cover image by John Rae, No limit, 76 X 56 cm acrylic and collage

Downloads

Published

2018-09-15

How to Cite

Nish, B. L. (2018). A Review through Dialogue: Ruthann Knechel Johansen’s “Listening in the Silence, Seeing in the Dark: Reconstructing Life after Brain Injury”. Art/Research/International:/A/Transdisciplinary/Journal, 3(2), 349–363. https://doi.org/10.18432/ari29371

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 2 (2018): Art/Research International: A Transdisciplinary Journal

Section

Art/Research Reviews

License

Copyright (c) 2018 Art/Research International: A Transdisciplinary Journal

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with Art/Research International agree to the following terms:

a. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication and the right to sublicense the Contribution, in the form in which it is published by the journal, to others under the terms and conditions of the of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND) that allows others to download the work and share the work with others with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal, but they cannot change the work in any way or use any part of the work commercially.

b. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive public distribution and display of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

c. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

d. Authors wishing to include items (such as images or other media, or any creative works of others whether previously published or not) must contact the original copyright holder to obtain explicit permission to publish these items in Art/Research International. Writing permission should include: the title(s) of any copyrighted work, original place of publication if applicable, and an acknowledgement of having read Art/Research International's copyright notice. Authors are responsible for obtaining this permission and keeping it in their own records for later verification.