The burden of the story: narratives of recovery and hermeneutical injustice

It can sometimes seem that the ill are under normative pressure not only to recover, but to narrate their recovery. After all, narratives of recovery give the ill a voice, can support their recovery, and can inspire other ill persons to recover too. Authors such as Arthur Frank have endorsed a principle along these lines, and it is also reflected in mental health policy in the Anglophone Global North. In this paper, we raise what we call the “burden objection” to the idea that the ill should author and share narratives of their recovery. Specifically, we provide three kinds of case in which such a principle would place an additional and epistemically unjust burden on the ill. We close by reflecting on how such a burden can be relieved.