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Narrative Medicine: The Use of History and Story in the Healing Process

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Narrative Medicine is a radical critique of conventional medicine in which Mehl-Madrona, M.D., Ph.D. challenges the knowledge system that physicians, especially psychiatrists, use to diagnose illness and direct treatment. Mehl-Madrona's writing style is straight-forward and concrete, enlivened with his skillful use of patient stories and historical examples drawn from his years in practice and as a professor of medicine, currently at University of Saskatchewan and before that, University of Arizona. He traces the philosophical roots of western medicine's fundamental axioms that disease can be understood with a mechanistic, biological model alone, and that valid medical solutions must generalize to a large population. Mehl-Madrona uses clinical experiences, recent research in physics, and advances in post-modern philosophy to underscore how these medical truths are, in themselves, a story. "Narrative therapy," as described by more than 200 Amazon authors, is promoted as an effective tool to be added to the physician's standard repertoire. Narrative medicine, by contrast, is not a tool; it is a way of seeing. In Mehl-Madrona's experience, storytelling is transformative, capable of promoting healing as a consequence of the interplay between teller and listeners.

As a cancer researcher, I found that Narrative Medicine held the key to understanding interviews I conducted with ovarian cancer survivors. I had asked these women to tell me how they learned of their diagnosis. What they told me were stories of how their illness had changed their self-understanding. For most, their interactions with the medical community had been frustrating and fragmented. They described being shuttled back and forth among a variety of experts (e.g., nephrologists, internists, and GI specialists), few of whom had the time or patience to listen when the women attempted to describe how their symptoms had unfolded. For all of them, the diagnostic process was frightening and disheartening.

My colleague found that Mehl-Madrona's analysis of bi-polar disorder and the current predominance of the biochemical explanation mirrored her experience. As a "non-responder" to standard medications, her hopes for relief had been undermined by the prevailing view that bi-polar disorder is a life-long biochemical imbalance for which drugs are the only effective treatment. "What I do now to help myself includes many of the approaches contained in the healing stories in Narrative Medicine," she told me. "Like Mehl-Madrona says, my solution is particular and works for me; other people in my support group find that their stories spur them to actions that are very different from mine, but equally helpful. Narrative Medicine gave me a new understanding of why that might be."

For a single text --- and a paperback at that! --- to accomplish both these tasks is testimony to the breadth of application available to the reader who is open to Narrative Medicine's premise.

The overall tone of this book is plodding and academic, compared to Mehl-Madrona's "Coyote Medicine". Either he changed editors or didn't use one. Not much new material. But this may appeal more to academic types. I much preferred the dynamic personal narrative of the earlier book.

This book goes way beyond giving us a new understanding of medicine and the power of story in healing. It provides us with incredible insight into this too often untapped (or unconsciously tapped) power to create stories out of what we live, what we perceive, to give meaning to our lives.
There are major parallels to draw between Dr Mehl-Madrona's books and Viktor Frankl's work, and his "logotherapy". Frankl helped his patients find meaning (logos) in their lives, and so does Lewis Mehl-MAdrona, but by using a different approach.
As compared to previous books, "Narrative Medicine" allows readers to have a much deeper understanding of the workings of this medicine. It gets to the very principles of the power of stories.
It is not always an easy book, but it is undoubtedly a major one, a reference book, to be read, re-read and considered : there is much to me learned from it !

I am so grateful to have serendipitously stumbled upon Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madrona's work. Narrative Medicine is filled with deep wisdom and insight into the process of healing. He brings heart and soul to a profession which has become largely cold and clinical. Witnessing my Mother's health decline and then finally her diagnosis and cancer treatment truly opened my eyes to the heartlessness of our Western system. Reading Narrative Medicine made me feel less alone in my belief that health and wholeness is more rich and complex than diagnosing and medicating. I have been blessed with personally meeting and witnessing Dr. Mehl-Madrona at work. As a result, my view of illness and disease will never be the same. I highly recommend this book!

In this book, Dr. Mehl-Madrona provides a thoughtful critique of modern medicine. While he acknowledges many of the positive things that modern medicine has done for society (like making it possible to attribute disease to more than just people's religious and moral failings), he also proves how the discipline misses many aspects of health and wellness.

In the first few chapters of the book, Dr. Mehl-Madrona references a wide range of topics, from traditional stories to recent research on quantum physics. These chapters help to provide a foundation for understanding how narrative medicine can be conceived and employed in practice. Dr. Mehl-Madrona has a writing style that is very relaxed and inviting to the reader. Through his writing, he creates a dialectic in the truest sense: instead of trying to discredit all of modern medicine, or attempting to integrate narrative medicine into previously established theories of modern medicine, Dr. Mehl-Madrona provides a vital approach to medicine and health.

This book was used as part of a senior Psychology class. However, I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning about the field of medicine, about how doctors today treat physical and mental illnesses, and how narrative medicine can be used to help people.

Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madrona shares his rich knowledge with us in "Narrative Medicine". Those who appreciate a nice dose of inspiration, coupled with specific case studies will find it within this book. If you've ever felt unacknowledged and/or misunderstood by your health care practitioners you may find acknowledgment here. Mehl-Madrona helps us to transcend the prevalent restricted thinking of most of our medical communities.

This book is a must-read for anyone who senses a missing link (or links) in their conventional health care. Our personal stories are not static, they flow throughout our lives, therefore we cannot fit neatly into a specific check box on a standard medical or psychological intake form. By citing many cases and through his own story telling, Lewis Mehl-Madrona helps us to broaden our options and realize ourselves in the context of how we are in regard to our environment.

Find out how you can work with your own history and story to help enhance and release the healing forces that all of us have naturally. Everything is a spoke in the wheel; the more we broaden our views, the more options will become available. Thanks to Dr. Mehl-Madrona for making this book available to us.

I have read all of the authors books ; the path he has traveled is unique , and his present state of balance hard won. He manages to combine the narrative people- focused holographic holistic aspects of what he has learned about well being; with the reconciled state of the art of standard accepted medical protocol - Hes a renegade that is living and practicing in the real world , I admire him; his writings give hope and solace.

Thank You Dr Mehl-Madrona for your dedication to awakening the true story in all of us and assisting us in writing a new story of health, wellness and possibilities. Healing is natural and its our story of our life that keeps whatever we live locked into dis-ease or perfect health. This book and all of his previous books bring us through many stories that assist us in awakening our own story and inspire us to know and choose to change it. Thank You for living your mission and dedication to bringing this Ancient and new way of healing to the public and professional sector. Narrative Medicine does break his work down more for us to look at it and ourselves in more usable ways. I have recommended it to my students and clients who are both lay people and holistic doctors-healers.