EWS. Medical Narratives/Narrative Medicine. Nordic Network for Studies in Narrativity and Medicine

The last ten years have witnessed an emergence of interest in the field of narrativity and medicine within the Nordic countries, which the Nordic Network for Studies in Narrativity and Medicine wishes to capitalise on, and to develop. Internationally, the field has existed for forty years within the wider context of Medical Humanities, which was established as a reaction to what was seen as de-humanising tendencies in medicine. The field has now got a central position within Medical Humanities, in particu lar in USA and England. With a view to entering into a dialogue with these more established movements, now is the right time to implement a coherent Nordic research effort in narrativity and medicine. The network will deal with the relationship from four, mutually related approaches, each of which highlights ways in which the study of narrativity can contribute to medicine. Firstly, narratives can provide an insight into the individual experience of being ill, by communicating the immediate sensory effect of illness, as recorded by the so-called pathography. This calls for a phenomenological approach. Secondly, narratives can stimulate a reflection on the dilemmas that face the participants in medical situations. This calls for an ethical approach. Thirdl y, narratives can offer an insight into the communicative aspects of medicine. This calls for a narratological approach. Fourthly, narratives can shed light upon the relationship between the emergence of medical knowledge and other knowledge forms. This c alls for an epistemological approach. Such a multilayered approach to the field will be innovative not only in a Nordic, but also in an international context. Studies in narrativity and medicine will make an important contribution to the Nordic health car e systems. The movement towards a more user-focused treatment forms calls for the continual recording of patients' illness narratives, for instance in the growing fields of fields of telemedicine and geriatrics.