Using personal observation and reason to understand one's own body and experience, resisting the reduction of identity to medical diagnosis or expert judgment.
Sor Juana positioned herself as the ultimate authority on her own experience, using reason and observation to know herself rather than deferring entirely to institutional power. In chronic illness, this means trusting your own embodied knowledge—what you feel, what patterns you notice, how your illness actually functions in your life—even when it differs from medical narratives. Doctors offer expertise, but you are the expert on your own body. This concept encourages keeping journals, tracking symptoms through your own lens, questioning diagnoses that don't fit, and building a self-knowledge that complements rather than submits to medical authority. It acknowledges that chronic illness is partly knowable only to the person living it. Self-knowledge becomes an act of resistance against being defined solely by clinical categories or reduced to a patient role. Your understanding of yourself is valid knowledge, worthy of respect and action.
Peri can explain this concept, give practical examples, help you decide whether it applies to your situation, or recommend a journey if appropriate.
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