Autoethnography By Joan Didion

therapy, increase patients ability to converse with others, reduce their social isolation, and increase their level of interest and attention in external events.
When writing up a report or project, one would normally use the method of finding sources and resource from other places and people; but the method of autoethnography is to use your own thoughts and experiences as a form of resource. Writer Joan Didion states simply that “we tell ourselves stories in order to live” and stories allow us to be more reflective and enable us to live better. Autoethnography is a method of research that uses the personal experiences of the researcher in order to critique; it connects the story to the researcher on a deeper level acknowledging the relationship
Therefore writing personal stories can be therapeutic for authors as they write to make sense of themselves and experiences; it can also be therapeutic for those the readers. For example, during the 1960s, feminist Betty Friedan identified the "problem that has no name"—the "vague, chronic discontent" many White, middle-class women experienced because of unable to engage in "personal development," particularly of not being able to work outside of their homes in equal, encouraging working environments. She noted that many women, as homemakers, did not talk to each other about such feelings. Confined to home-work for most of the day, these women did not have the opportunity to share their stories; thus, they felt alone in their struggle, as if their isolation and feelings were issues with which they had to fight on their own. Friedan turned to writing in order to introduce and share women's stories, her writing not only came to function as therapeutic for many women, but also motivated significant cultural change in the understanding of and public policies toward women's rights. So writing personal stories makes observing possible, the readers can witness and better argue on behalf of an event, problem, or
I was put on some medication to help with my disassociation and hallucinations, and although this all helped, I feel I don’t benefit enough from drugs and discussions alone. I wanted to start music therapy again and play and listen to music where it didn’t feel like a chore for my music degree. But sadly my CPN thought it wouldn’t be beneficial as I had already gained enough confidence and ability to express how I felt and what I had been through from what sessions I already had. This made me disappointed but I kept going with the treatment my doctors had chosen for me. I can safely say, now, as of April 2016, I am a much healthier person; my periods of disassociation have completely stopped and I barely experience hallucinations. I continuously practice guitar, and often just sit and play where my mind and fingers take me rather than play specific songs, to try and emulate my music therapy sessions. I think if it hadn’t been for my music therapy sessions, I wouldn’t be able to play as I do now or feel as good as I do