Healing and Storytelling

I am experiencing something that most people won't in their lives: the reconnection of a nerve that hasn't worked for several years. Or more precisely, it's not the peripheral nerve itself, but the way the signals are processed in my spinal cord and brain. Things I couldn't sense before are now getting their signals through, and muscles I couldn't control before are now "awake."

This led me to wonder how common it is for the CNS (central nervous system) to heal like this. It turns out that in animals, it's not so uncommon. Even a severed spinal cord can come together again, allowing movement in the affected limbs of rats and cats. I bet Christopher Reeve could have used that (although, of course, he had much more extensive damage than comes from a clean cut with a researcher's scalpel).

I wonder if one reason animals can heal like this is that they lack the ability to tell stories about what is happening to them. Of course they have memory, but they don't put it together into a narrative of their life like humans do. Our narratives are amazing-- we have stories about how our parents created neurotic tendencies in us, about how our spouse is driving us nuts, about how an injury will "ruin our life."

Lacking all of this grants some element of freedom. Perhaps it allows the space simply to heal as much as biologically possible, without all the psychological complications that humans can add. Of course, we also get the benefit of having a mind that can tell stories-- perhaps this enables the doctor to explain what is happening, provide hope, etc. Certainly animals are prone to panic because they cannot see the larger picture of what is happening to them.

Still, I bet healing is simpler among our furred, feathered, and finned friends.