ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the ways in which personal narratives can both create interpersonal conflict as well as revolve interpersonal conflict. It demonstrates how a mentalization-based approach to treatment helps resolve relationship-endangering misunderstandings and how patients struggling to get out from under a dysfunctional relationship may be stymied in their effort to find a "break-up narrative" upon which they and their partner can agree. The chapter also demonstrates how narratives help ailing individuals better cope with the challenges posed by a serious medical condition they have developed. It discusses the illness narratives are thought to represent a distinct narrative genre and considerable work has been done that advances our understanding of how these narratives function and what they provide the storyteller. The chapter explores two particular types of condition-specific illness narratives—those constructed in the aftermath of a patient suffering a myocardial infarction and those told by patients who has been diagnosed with cancer.
