ABSTRACT

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book considers critical social scientific theory as a lens through which to view the process of identity (re)construction following acquired brain injury (ABI). It explains both the lives of ABI survivors and neurological rehabilitation after ABI through a critical social scientific lens and examines the process of disability research. The book provides empirical data which may be used to critically interrogate the viewpoint which suggests that rehabilitation should be enacted as a quest to regain independence. It describes a way that rehabilitation is often regarded as a fixed and bounded activity that only occurs in designated 'rehabilitative' spaces and at set times. In striving to understand ABI from a social scientific perspective, the book seeks to be truly nomadic and resists static categorisation in order to encourage further dialogue across and between the stark borders between the medical and social sciences.