Aging, Disease and Death: A Narrative Medicine Approach

Wen Yingxi and Di Shi

Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning ›› 2019, Vol. 4 ›› Issue (5) : 58-70.

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Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning ›› 2019, Vol. 4 ›› Issue (5) : 58-70. DOI: 10.19689/j.cnki.cn10-1361/h.20190504

Aging, Disease and Death: A Narrative Medicine Approach

  • Wen Yingxi and Di Shi
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Abstract

Aging, disease and death are three major events in one’s life course. They are so vital in human life that they have given rise to a range of disciplines dedicated to their studies. This paper focuses on the last phase of life course of late adulthood, starting from the diagnosis of incurable cancer to the brain death. In this phase, aging, disease and death, separated indefinitely before, are compressed and experienced intensely, death preoccupying the minds of the patient, the doctor and the relatives. Adopting narrative medicine as its theoretical framework, the paper first reviews the medical doctors’ narration of death, including those who are “the wounded storytellers”. Aged dying cancer sufferers and their relatives are recruited to narrate their experiences. A sample of their narrative discourse is analyzed in terms of biomedical reasoning and narrative reasoning. The differences between the two contribute to the misunderstandings and communication failures between doctors and patients/relatives.

Key words

narrative medicine / late adulthood / death narrative / biomedical reasoning / narrative reasoning

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Wen Yingxi and Di Shi. Aging, Disease and Death: A Narrative Medicine Approach[J]. Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning. 2019, 4(5): 58-70 https://doi.org/10.19689/j.cnki.cn10-1361/h.20190504

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