Silvabrand | Storytelling as Medicine
Silva Brand

Storytelling as Medicine

Mar 02, 2022 | by Team Silva
3 min

Your story is the foundation of your brand. It’s more powerful than all the catchy slogans and glitzy images put together because it makes meaning. It answers the question – why does your organization exist?

Now, the power of story is being used in a host of other disciplines to serve their customers. The one that may surprise you is medicine. When a doctor and patient share their stories, it helps them form a bond and understand what successful treatment entails. And it has practical implications – greater empathy will create greater outcomes and faster recovery.

Like many medical innovations, the revolution around how doctors and patients communicate took hold in universities. For instance, Columbia University’s Department of Medical Humanities and Ethics’ Division of Narrative Medicine offers a MS in Narrative Medicine and an Online Certification of Professional Achievement in Narrative Medicine. “The effective practice of health care requires the ability to recognize, absorb, interpret, and act on the stories and plights of others,” according to the degree program’s website. It also says that its curriculum revolves around “intensive exposure to narrative writing and close reading skills, literary and philosophical analysis, and experiential work.” This coursework has helped prepare both those with scientific and humanities backgrounds to elicit and tell stories about the human condition. Neurologist Dr. Gayatri Devi is an alumna who combined her passions for the brain and storytelling after graduating with her master’s degree. She told Columbia’s School of Professional Studies that “we’re all really just a library of stories, and our stories determine our illnesses and how we’re going to respond to different things.” Her book The Spectrum of Hope demonstrates her commitment to bettering lives through storytelling. It explores Alzheimer’s Disease and other dementias’ impact on patients and their loved ones, and it received wide praise from reviewers. According to barnesandnoble.com, “told through the stories of Dr. Devi’s patients, The Spectrum of Hope humanizes the science, and offers equal parts practical advice and wisdom with skillful ease, along with real hope.”

In addition to presenting medical expertise in an accessible and heartfelt manner, narrative medicine also provides opportunities for introspection on the emotions surrounding patient care’s ups and downs. Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine is a publication that, since 2010, has featured poignant, well-written reflections on human health and illness. “Intima is the thin layer lining a blood vessel, speeding blood to the heart and brain, an apt analogy for the kind of narratives we publish that speak to the emotions and the intellect, the feelings, and facts that engage the senses in stories with meaning and impact,” according to its website. The journal features powerful works in an array of forms, including poetry and first-person essays. Medical student Michael Rizzo’s essay, “When the Screen Falls Away”, for example, meditates on the empathy he shows his patients and his struggle to stay composed when his friend’s dying son was admitted to his hospital. “I learned that, for me, truly feeling the weight of patients’ and families’ concern is what allows me to connect with them and provide a feeling of comfort and being cared for, even when there is very little hope,” he writes. “And sometimes, what’s needed is simply your time, your presence, and a hug.” The essay received an Honorable Mention in the Compassion in Healthcare 2018 Essay Contest.

Narrative medicine is a genre that is growing in popularity, and it is also helping doctors reach patients on a personal level. According to a Vox article by Sigal Samuel, “several outcomes studies show that when doctors do receive narrative training, they derive pleasure from it, and it helps them better understand, empathize, and communicate with their patients. This is true in clinical settings ranging from genetics counseling to fetal cardiology to surgical training.”