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Illness Narratives in Practice: Potentials and Challenges of Using Narratives in Health-related Contexts

Online ISBN:
9780191844225
Print ISBN:
9780198806660
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Illness Narratives in Practice: Potentials and Challenges of Using Narratives in Health-related Contexts

Gabriele Lucius-Hoene (ed.),
Gabriele Lucius-Hoene
(ed.)

Professor

Professor, Department of Rehabilitation psychology and psychotherapy, University of Freiburg, Germany
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Christine Holmberg (ed.),
Christine Holmberg
(ed.)

Professor of Social Medicine and Epidemiology

Professor of Social Medicine and Epidemiology, Medical School Brandenburg Theodor Fontane
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Thorsten Meyer (ed.)
Thorsten Meyer
(ed.)

Professor

Professor, Integrative Rehabilitation Research Unit and Institute of Epidemiology, Hannover Medical School, Germany
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Published online:
November 2018
Published in print:
October 2018
Online ISBN:
9780191844225
Print ISBN:
9780198806660
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

Illness narratives, patients’ stories about their experiences of illness, have gained a reputation as a scientific domain in medicine in the last thirty years. Patients’ stories about living with an illness, diagnostic procedures and treatments, encounters with medical institutions and its impact on their private and social life have been considered as an important access to their meaning-making and coping endeavours. They also play an important role in doctor-patient communication and the development of a healing relationship. This book aims at sensitizing professionals who use illness narratives in the field of medicine for their problems, challenges, and chances. In what ways should scholars of narratives respond to such uses? We argue that the use of narratives in applied contexts raises many questions about what kind of tools they are and what epistemological foundations, communicational properties and pragmatic effects they comprise when they are shifted from research material to clinical or educational and instructive instruments in various domains. This raises ethical concern and reflections. The book brings together scholars from various disciplines across clinical and theoretical fields. They give impressive examples how illness narratives can be used in many practical domains, and reflect on the chances as well as on the methodological or epistemological assumptions and challenges which are inevitably connected with the use of narratives as clinical, educational, or informative tools.

Disclaimer
Oxford University Press makes no representation, express or implied, that the drug dosages in this book are correct. Readers must therefore always … More Oxford University Press makes no representation, express or implied, that the drug dosages in this book are correct. Readers must therefore always check the product information and clinical procedures with the most up to date published product information and data sheets provided by the manufacturers and the most recent codes of conduct and safety regulations. The authors and the publishers do not accept responsibility or legal liability for any errors in the text or for the misuse or misapplication of material in this work. Except where otherwise stated, drug dosages and recommendations are for the non-pregnant adult who is not breastfeeding.
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