Traumatic narrative foreclosure and narrative care in the context of narrative medicine / 中国医学伦理学

ABSTRACT

In the context of Chinese narrative medicine， narrative foreclosure is an abnormal state in the process of life narrative， which is the “fractured or stagnation of the life narrative process”. Based on analyzing the characteristics and performance of typical traumatic narrative foreclosures in literary works and clinical reality， this paper proposed that narrative care is of great significance for the traumatic subject to get out of narrative foreclosures and re-enter the narrative process of mental and physical comfort. “Narrative care” is a way of care in which medical staff or educator in health institutions use their narrative capital and narrative wisdom to establish interpersonal narrative connections with themselves， their families， and service or education recipients， so as to nourish subjects in narrative foreclosure and help them get out of life’s dilemmas. Narrative caregivers assist the traumatic subjects in gaining the restorative power to repair the fractured narrative process of life through the construction of a narrative community， getting out of isolation， achieving growth， and restoring overall health.