ABSTRACT
Recent narrative research in medicine suggests that narratives can strengthen the
patient-provider relationship (Pearson, McTigue, & Tarpley, 2008) and make
providers more empathic (Charon, 2006). This research tends to focus on merging
the singular experience of a patient’s illness into generalized medical standards
of care, but it also affords the opportunity for counter-narratives that present “an
alternative voice from that offered in the standard biomedical account” (Hurwitz,
Greenhalgh, & Skultans, 2004, p. 9). Narrative self-representations of people
with disabilities and chronic diseases often challenge the more prominent
narratives apparent in the medical community and media, and these acts empower
people living with disabilities or illnesses in a way they cannot achieve in
the narratives constructed by others on their behalf (Mitchell & Snyder, 2006;
Sontag, 1978).
