Experiencing illness through storytelling

Arthur W. Frank

pp. 229-245

in: Toombs (ed), Handbook of phenomenology and medicine, Berlin, Springer, 2001

Abstract

These two statements span almost a decade, concern two very different illnesses (Broyard was dying of prostate cancer), and express two different sensibilities who create in different media. Yet their similarities override these differences. Each presents illness as a loss of "control" and storytelling as a process of regaining a new sense of control. Broyard's statement that "Storytelling seems to be a natural reaction to illness" is echoed in the editorial description of Gerry Rogers as "a natural storyteller" for whom it was "only natural" to make a film abont her experience.