Narrative Medicine

IAHPC Newsletter, May 2013 This is not a new book, but I felt it had something special for palliative care. Rita Charon is Professor of Clinical Medicine and Director of the Program in Narrative Medicine at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. I think it is appropriate to say that she is the mother of Narrative Medicine.... I would recommend this book to anybody working in palliative care, as it will bring them face-to-face with issues related to the
patient/healthcare professional interaction that in all probability had already been troubling them.


Doody's Notes This is a great book, but not one for fast assimilation. This is a book that takes much work to understand, but readers will be warmly rewarded for their efforts...well done.


The Lancet, Vol 370, It is a compelling mix, backed by the unusual authority of a physician who is also a literary scholar. ... Narrartive Medicine is practical enough to be beneficial to the clinician, yet sufficiently theoretical to serve as a seminal text in the field. Even master clinicians can gain from the knowledge and skills presented here. Charon has written an inspired and inspiring book; and, in her stories of patients and students, she is a role model for us all.

PART I WHAT IS NARRATIVE MEDICINE?; 1. The Sources of Narrative Medicine; 2. Bridging Health Care's Divides; 3. Narrative Features of Medicine; PART II NARRATIVES OF ILLNESS; 4. Telling One's Life; 5. The Patient, the Body, and the Self; PART III DEVELOPING NARRATIVE COMPETENCE; 6. Close Reading; 7. Attention, Representation, and Affiliation; 8. The Parallel Chart; PART IV DIVIDENDS OF NARRATIVE MEDICINE; 9. Bearing Witness; 10. The Bioethics of Narrative Medicine; 11. A Narrative Vision for Health Care; References; Index