“This soul trapped in glass, / which is her true creation”: The Importance of Self-narration in the Medical Practice from a Literary and Gender Perspective. A Case Study

This article explores the intersectional relationship between domestic and medical gender-based violence, focusing specifically on the discursive aspect of medical practices. This research is based on the systemic disregard of female narratives in medical environments —particularly during screening and diagnostic processes— and the ex-treme technicality and personal distancing that certain medical discourses have acquired in the last few years. To this end, this article presents a close reading of Anne Carson’s poem “The Glass Essay”, included in Glass, Irony and God (1995), to advocate for the inclusion of more creative and freer narratives during psychological assessments and treatments to overcome those gendered discriminations that have been present in medical practices and have dismissed female narratives of illness and abuse as overly emotional and subjective. To ground this work, Rita Charon’s studies in Narrative Medicine, together with a close reading of Carson’s unique construction of the autobiographical self, will serve as a methodological basis to understand the relevance of gender exclusion in psychotherapeutic practices and the importance of using creative writing methods to allow victims of abuse to express themselves without the constraints of technicalities and gender-based stigmas.