Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Mar;16(2):160-165.
doi: 10.1370/afm.2182.

A Narrative Approach to Healing Chronic Illness

Thomas R Egnew  1
Affiliations

A Narrative Approach to Healing Chronic Illness

Thomas R Egnew. Ann Fam Med. 2018 Mar.

Abstract

Many clinicians may feel poorly prepared to manage patient suffering resulting from the travails of chronic illness. This essay explores the thesis that chronically and terminally ill patients can be holistically healed by transcending the suffering occasioned by the degradations of their illnesses. Suffering is conveyed as a story and clinicians can encourage healing by co-constructing patients' illness stories. By addressing the inevitable existential conflicts uncovered in patients' narratives and helping them edit their stories to promote acceptance and meaning, suffering can be transcended. This requires that clinicians be skilled in narrative medicine and open to engaging the patient's existential concerns. By helping patients transcend their suffering, clinicians claim their heritage as healers.

Keywords: chronic disease; physician-patient relations; psychological; stress; suffering.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: author reports none.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Cassell EJ. The importance of understanding suffering for clinical ethics. J Clin Ethics. 1991; 2(2): 81–82. - PubMed
    1. Gawande A. Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. New York, NY: Metropolitan Books; 2014.
    1. Fox E. Predominance of the curative model of medical care. A residual problem. JAMA. 1997; 278(9): 761–763. - PubMed
    1. Cassel EJ. The nature of suffering and the goals of medicine. N Engl J Med. 1982; 306(11): 639–645. - PubMed
    1. Cassell EJ. Recognizing suffering. Hastings Cent Rep. 1991; 21(3): 24–31. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources