Narrative storytelling

Conscious employment of a narrative approach “might represent a sincere attempt on the physician’s part to develop over time into a certain sort of person – a healing sort of person – for whom the primary focus of attention is outward, toward the experience and suffering of the patient, and not inward, toward the physician’s own preconceived agenda. . . . The notion that one is trying over time to develop into a special sort of person and that one is willing to open oneself to being changed by experiencing the suffering of others proves finally that the physician has accepted a suitably humble status in the power hierarchy of the physician-patient relationship. . . . The ‘narrative physician’ knows that sometimes objective detachment is both necessary and comforting to the patient but sometimes a compassionate vulnerability is required” (Brody, 88-89).