2008 Volume 48 Issue 11 Pages 965-970
In recent years, narrative based medicine (NBM) has become widely recognized as a necessary complement to evidence based medicine (EBM). However, narratives in medical practice not only complement EBM, but are also of therapeutic significance. In consideration of the therapeutic function of narratives, the present report describes a 54-year-old married woman with a somatoform disorder who developed three narratives during the course of her treatment. She complained of long-term dysesthesia in her face and was hospitalized in our psychiatric ward after many unsuccessful somatic treatments. During her second psychiatric hospitalization, she began to talk about familial conflicts that she had not discussed previously. Subsequently, her facial preoccupation improved and she began to feel better. For this patient, the following three narratives were identified: (1) narrative of a somatic patient, (2) narrative of a depressive patient, and (3) narrative about problems in her life that were uncovered during the development of her treatment. The present report discussed the relationship between the change in the dominant narrative and the improvement of her condition.
