Skip to content
1981
Volume 15, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 1757-1979
  • E-ISSN: 1757-1987

Abstract

This brief article serves as an elaboration and research on the impact of receiving a diagnosis of disability or chronic illness in adulthood. The research begins with the viewing and analysis of the theatrical piece written and performed by Maisa Sally-anna Perk, presented at the Barcelona-based cooperative theatre Periferias Cimarronas. The cooperative is managed and directed by Black and African descendant artists and activists, who use performative arts as a tool for community building, access to leisure and the development of resistance actions. The play offers a representation of the author’s personal experience of living with functional neurological disorder (FND), and it is used here as a starting point for investigating, on one hand, the effects of receiving a diagnosis in adulthood on the construction and perception of an individual’s identity, and on the other, the forms of language used to express the correlation between disability or chronic illness and identity. This exploration delves, finally, into the ongoing debate between person-first language and identity-first language, specifically when talking about disabilities and chronic illnesses, addressing as well the relationship and intersection with other stigmatized identities.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/peet_00081_1
2025-12-11
2026-04-22

Metrics

Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Corden, K., Brewer, R. and Cage, E. (2021), ‘Personal identity after an autism diagnosis: Relationships with self-esteem, mental wellbeing, and diagnostic timing’, Frontiers in Psychology, 12, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.699335.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Cuollo, M. and Righetti, S. (2020), ‘La lotta all’abilismo passa dal linguaggio: Termini da non usare quando si parla di disabilità’, Beyond Stereotypes, 3 December, https://www.bossy.it/abilismo-linguaggio-termini-disabilita.html. Accessed 18 May 2025.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Di Michele, V., Fiacchi, A. and Orrù, A. (2022), Scrivi e lascia vivere: Manuale pratico di scrittura inclusiva e accessibile, Palermo: Flacowski.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Frank, A. W. (2005), ‘The rhetoric of self-change: Illness experience as narrative’, The Sociological Quarterly, 34:1, pp. 3952, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.1993.tb00129.x.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Galinsky, A., Hugenberg, K., Groom, C. and Bodenhausen, G. (2003), ‘The reappropriation of stigmatizing labels: Implications for social identity’, in J. Polzer (ed.), Research on Managing Groups and Teams: Identity Issues in Groups, vol. 5, Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp. 22156, https://doi.org/10.1016/S1534-0856(02)05009-0.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Garland-Thomson, R. (1997), Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature, New York: Columbia University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Gill, C. J. (1997), ‘Four types of integration in disability identity development’, Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, 9:1, pp. 3946, https://doi.org/10.3233/jvr-1997-9106.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Goffman, E. (1968), Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. den Houting, J. (2018), ‘Neurodiversity: An insider’s perspective’, Autism, 23:2, pp. 27173, https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361318820762.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Linton, S. (1998), Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity, New York: New York University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Moore, L. (2015), Black Disabled Art History 101, San Francisco, CA: Poor Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Pelters, P. (2024), ‘I am what I am? An integrative review of understandings of  “health identity” and “illness identity” in scientific literature’, Sociology of Health & Illness, 46:1, pp. 123, https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.13771.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Popa-Wyatt, M. (2020), ‘Reclamation: Taking back control of words’, Grazer Philosophische Studien, 97:1, pp. 15976, https://doi.org/10.1163/18756735-09701009.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Revilla Muñoz, O. and Carreras Montoto, O. (2024), ‘Introducción a la accesibilidad web’, in O. Revilla Muñoz and O. C. Santos Martín (eds), Accesibilidad web: WGAC 2.2 de forma sencilla, Madrid: Itákora Press, pp. 931.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Robison, J. E. (2019), ‘Autism prevalence and outcomes in older adults’, Autism Research,12:3, pp. 37074, https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2080.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Schechner, R. (1988), Performance Theory, 2nd ed., London: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Steel, C. (1997), ‘A threat in the air: How stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance’, American Psychologist, 52:6, pp. 61329, https://doi.org/10.1037//0003-066x.52.6.613.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Taken, S. (2023), ‘Social justice theatre and the impact on theatre artists’, MA dissertation, San Bernardino, CA: California State University, https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd/1733. Accessed 13 May 2025.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Wendell, S. (1996), The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability, New York: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Young, S. (2014), ‘I’m not your inspiration, thank you very much’, Ted.com, April, https://www.ted.com/talks/stella_young_i_m_not_your_inspiration_thank_you_very_much/transcript. Accessed 10 October 2025.
/content/journals/10.1386/peet_00081_1
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test