ABSTRACT
Disease is the natural cause of death and is experienced as an existential threat to the body in the form of the death of the body. In this chapter, the author describes existential threat to include an existential threat to the body-self, the individual self-narration. This scenario relates a story of a patient who sustained a motorcycle accident with significant physical injuries, an event that is assumed to carry the risk of death. The existential threat and initiation of the healing ritual structured the office visit. Through the lens of healing narrative as healing ritual, this scenario highlights the transformative nature of the process. After that near-death experience, the patient is left with multiple disruptions in the body, self, and social domains. There is a high chance she attributes loss of part of her kidney with decreased kidney function — her existential threat.
