ABSTRACT
The area of study known as health communication has traditionally been a very empirical, social scientific field of research. In the last fifteen years, however, researchers have begun expanding the horizons of health communication by employing and legitimizing alternative approaches to the understanding of communicative processes as they relate to health and illness and to the delivery of health care. Notable amongst those approaches is an application of narrative theory and an examination of the role of narratives and stories in the health, healing, coping, and dying processes. This chapter will provide an overview of how this approach has come to be applied within the area of health communication. It will begin with a conceptualization of narrative and the process of narration. The overarching social functions of narration will be discussed, followed by an exploration of varying perspectives on narrative and narration. The focus will then move to a more specific application of the concepts of narrative and narration to health, healing, illness, and coping. Discussion will focus on narration as it functions to facilitate understanding of patients and health conditions, on narration in the self-identify process and how that relates to coping and healing, the broader roles of narration in coping and healing (beyond identity concerns), narration as it helps us understand the nature of health and illness, narration as it impacts healing, and narration as it helps tell us how to live. Particularly interesting and insightful examples of the application of narrative theory and the examination of health/illness/coping narratives will be highlighted.
