ABSTRACT
This chapter considers one way in which such interpretation can be conceptualised within the context of Paediatric Palliative Care. It deals with the narrative dimensions of people's accounts, that is, the ways people make sense of the world, and themselves in it, by creating self-stories and using already circulating stories to interpret the world. From the perspective of narrative research, what can be seen, observed and measured is not all there is to say: a much more interesting issue is that of interpretation involving how people interpret the social world, and their place within it. Frank, for example, observes that one of the main challenges of illness is to construct a story that can turn mere existence and stigmatisation into a meaningful social and moral life that is self-validating. The chapter shows narratives as social products produced by people within the context of specific social, historical and cultural spaces.
