''Paradigms Lost'' is a socionarrative which can be read or performed. Through a variety of literary techniques (e.g., the flashback, dialogue, rhythm, enjambment, etc.), I detail the wide-ranging consequences to my life and my family of a body-trauma and coma. Through the tacit sociological framework, I concretely show how a self reconstructs itself through language; how conceptually separable social institutions permeate each other; and how the mind and body split does not work as a meaning-making paradigm. I intend the article to work on multiple levels and to reach diverse audiences, including those who have experienced similar trauma.