The article “The Importance of Telling (and Listening) to the Story" by Kirsti A Dyer, MD is an overview of reasons storytelling is important in the medical practice. The piece simply defines what it means by telling a story, and then goes through an explanation - filled with cited examples - of why this story sharing process is important.
Much of the work focuses on healing from grief, either due to a personal loss of ability or the loss of someone close to you. In Dr. Dyer’s words, “When a loss of significant life change occurs people need to adapt their life story to include the loss…Developing a narrative allows a person to weave there life changes into a new more cohesive story.” We need stories to makes sense of what happens - inserting events into a timeline that shows a complete process. I wrote about something similar to this in a previous entry (February 10th, “Life Will Happen”) and I agree that we need to see the prior and after events in a tragedy to understand the entire journey, but Dr. Dyer takes this idea a step further by suggesting using storytelling as the tool for that task.
She also emphasizes how storytelling is a tool to construct a set of purposes for a difficult situation. She writes, “Stories allow physicians and patients to communicate, look for meaning in their illness, and discover ways of coping.” This is something I hadn’t thought of, but can easily agree with - when a tragic situation that I cannot understand develops, I quickly fall back to a fatalist or nihilistic philosophy - what does anything matter, its all just random, meaningless events - and this can trample my urge to respond in a productive manner. With storytelling, as laid out by Dr. Dyer, one can transform the tragedy into a part of a grand story. My piece “Who Am I, Again?” attempted to do just that, and I can testify that since I began working with that story, the events of my accident, while still hard, seem less tragic and more passing.
There is also a recognition of the importance of listening by the physician in this process. In Dr. Dyer’s words, “By listening to the story of loss, illness or disease the physician gives the patient a chance to express his / her concerns.” By listening to a patient’s story, a physician is given the chance to take better care of that person. One of my first entries into this blog was about the nursing staff at my rehabilitation hospital in Philadelphia (January 14th, “A Good Memory from Magee Rehabilitation”), and in that entry, I mention how there was one nurse in particular (they were all good, but this man stands out in my mind) who would make it a point to kneel beside my wheelchair and really listen to my difficulties, and this simply task helped me to feel a greater sense of calm that made my time in that hospital endlessly better.
The entire article is filled with examples and support of the thesis that storytelling is important from both sides of a healing situation - from the patient as well as the care-giver. Dr. Dyer also acknowledges that there is beginning to be a recognition of the value of storytelling in healing in contemporary medicine, and she is glad for this and encouraging it to continue. As she concludes, “Physicians may be unable to take away the pain and grief following a loss, however we can listen. Listening to a patient’s story of loss or illness, if even for just a few moments, can be beneficial in integrating, healing and recovering from the loss.”
I loved this article for several reasons - it is direct and easy to understand, the information is presented in an objective manner, and there are a host of citations of studies (which I am in the process of following up on) that support the thesis that storytelling is important for healing. Previously (primarily while in graduate school for Storytelling), I had heard arguments about the medical benefits of storytelling laden with lots of impassioned sentiment - I do not mean to criticize such passions and I feel this passion holds validity, but the argument in this paper is presented in a pragmatic manner granting it more power in the scientific and medical communities.
Yet I still have questions that rose while reading. As part of her “Definitions” section, Dr. Dyer states, “Telling the Story focuses on the act of relating anecdotes and telling healing stories; this can be accomplished via several methods - verbal or written narratives, tape or video recordings.” My question - is there a difference in how these mediums affect the Storyteller (patient or grieving person)? I suggest that the immediate storytelling performance - the Storyteller speaking to his / her friends and family - is far more therapeutic - both for the performer and the audience - as the intimacy of a story cannot be replicated through any sort of video or audio production. I find the idea of a camcorder or a audio recorder set on a stand in front of the speaker to be very mechanized when compared to the engaging live interaction of storytelling. I have not, however, found any studies that support or refute this suggestion, but Dr. Dyer does not address the question.
My second question concerns the responsibility of the doctor to listen to and empathize with a patient’s story - this seems like it may be outside the physician’s expertise. As stated in the article, “May physicians may feel untrained with their patient’s grief.” I suggest that this is an unfair burden to place upon physicians. Listening is an active process, and to become a skilled listener can take a significant amount of training - granted, there are some people who are naturally good listeners, but to suggest that a physician should be trained and/or skilled in this ability seems out of place. Psychologists are trained to be listeners, and for that reason I suggest that patients would be better served if there can be an open dialogue between psychologists and physicians during a sever medical procedure so the Psychologist can assist n the listening process. Granted, I am ignorant in both fields, but from my experience, and having friends and relations in these professions, to expect a doctor to listen is putting another heaping ladle full of responsibility on a plate of duties that is already filled to the edge.
This is not intended take away from Dr. Dyer’s article in any manner - I believe she has a deep understanding of the subject matter through her research. I also expect I will be returning to this article many times for support of my thesis - that storytelling assists in physical and mental healing. My hope is that these questions continue the discussion, helping the medical field find the best ways to help people recover and become more fully alive.
Those are my thoughts - I highly recommend reading this article and would love to get your thoughts in the comments.
Article: Kristi A Dyer, MD, MS. “The Importance of Telling (and Listening) to the Story”. Published December 6th, 2001 on Journey of Hearts website. Accessed February 1st, 2016. http://journeyofhearts.org/kirstimd/tellstory.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment