ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at identity is constructed and (co)constructed in a five-year time span. Power imbalance in professional– acquired brain injury (ABI) survivor and relative–ABI survivor relationships can affect identity reconstruction both in persons with ABI and their close relatives. There might be a clash of perceptions in various settings and situations between professionals and/or relatives and persons with ABI during their most vulnerable times. Once diagnosed with ABI, these same qualities can be interpreted through the lens of brain injury and reported as ABI symptoms. The person with ABI is being supervised and the relative intervenes toward the person or the environment. Silencing people with disabilities through the assertion of the expert’s professional opinion occurs regularly, especially in cases of neurological or psychiatric disabilities where insight issues appear, and the survivor’s personal judgment is considered to be unreliable.
