Therapeutic Explanations

This thesis offers a pragmatic response to the predicament faced by many people with persistent symptoms: the absence of adequate and helpful explanations within both healthcare and wider information environments. This problem is deeply intertwined with the complex and contested nature of conditions characterised by FSS, which often fall outside conventional disease categories. Existing theories of explanation in medicine largely centre on scientific or clinical sense-making and communication. However, these frameworks tend to overlook how explanations are shaped by those seeking to understand their own symptoms, particularly as this meaning-making increasingly unfolds within digitally networked spaces. This thesis introduces the concept of therapeutic explanation: a person-centred cognitive, narrative and embodied process through which an answer to the question, “What do I need to understand in order to better manage my symptoms or recover?” is grasped, integrated, and embodied. This concept extends existing accounts by foregrounding the socio-technical and embodied dimensions through which such questions are posed and answers sought in contemporary, “e-scaped” medicine.