Narratives of “Health-Care Systems”: What is Self-Management in Chronic Depressive Patients?

Abstract

This paper aims to consider self-management as one of the medical frameworks of patient understanding, based on the narratives of three chronic depressive patients. As analysis indicates, this paper introduces the concept of “the health-care system” by Arthur Kleinman. The results of analysis show that chronic depressive patients manage to survive by creating more than one place to receive care. It is necessary for medical professionals to recognize self-management in depressive patients as “creating various places to receive care”. Furthermore, it is important for medical professionals to be interested in private sector “health-care systems” which chronic patients create.