Narratives, Health, and Healing Communication Theory, Research, and Practice

Contents: A.W. Frank, Foreword. Preface. Part I: Overview of Narrative and Health Communication Theorizing. P.M. Japp, L.M. Harter, C.S. Beck, Introduction. L.M. Harter, P.M. Japp, C.S. Beck, Vital Problematics of Narrative Theorizing About Health and Healing. A.S. Babrow, K.N. Kline, W.K. Rawlins, Narrating Problems and Problematizing Narratives: Linking Problematic Integration and Narrative Theory in Telling Stories About Our Health. Part II: Personal Narratives and Public Dialogues. P.M. Japp, Introduction. C.S. Beck, Becoming the Story: Narratives as Collaborative, Social Enactments of Individual, Relational, and Public Identities. L.M. Harter, E.L. Kirby, A. Edwards, A. McClanahan, Time, Technology, and Meritocracy: The Disciplining of Women's Bodies in Narrative Constructions of Age-Related Infertility. P.M. Japp, D.K. Japp, Desperately Seeking Legitimacy: Narratives of a Bio-Medically Invisible Disease. T. Workman, Death as the Representative Anecdote in the Construction of Collegiate "Binge Drinking" Problem. T. Carabas, L.M. Harter, State-Induced Illness and Forbidden Stories: The Role of Storytelling in Healing Individual and Social Traumas in Romania. A. Singhal, K. Chitnis, A. Sengupta, Cross-Border Mass-Mediated Health Narratives: Narrative Transparency, "Safe Sex," and Indian Viewers. Part III: Narrating and Organizing Health Care Events and Resources. L.M. Harter, Introduction. W.K. Rawlins, Our Family's Physician. J. Morgan-Witte, Narrative Knowledge Development Among Caregivers: Stories From the Nurse's Station. Sunwolf, L.R. Frey, L. Keränen, Rx Story Prescriptions: Healing Effects of Storytelling and Storylistening in the Practice of Medicine. S.L. Ragan, T. Mindt, E. Wittenberg-Lyles, Narrative Medicine and Education in Palliative Care. P.M. Buzzanell, L.L. Ellingson, Contesting Narratives of Workplace Maternity. M.Z. Miller, P.G. Martin, K.C. Beatty, Wholeness in a Breaking World: Narratives as Sustenance for Peace. Part IV: Narrative Sense-Making About Self and Other. C.S. Beck, Introduction. B.F. Sharf, How I Fired My Surgeon and Embraced an Alternate Narrative. W.A. Beach, J. Mandelbaum, "My Mom Had a Stroke": Understanding How Patients Raise and Providers Respond to Psychosocial Concerns. M.P. Keeley, J.K. Kellas, Constructing Life and Death Through Final Conversation Narratives. C. Bosticco, T.L. Thompson, An Examination of the Role of Narratives and Storytelling in Bereavement. D. O'Hair, D. Scannell, S. Thompson, Agency Through Narrative: Patients Managing Cancer Care in a Challenging Environment. C.S. Beck, L.M. Harter, P.M. Japp, Afterword: Continuing the Conversation: Reflections on Our Emergent Scholarly Narratives.

Biography

Harter, Lynn M.; Japp, Phyllis M.; Beck, Christina S.

"This book is noteworthy for the authors' rich, poignant narratives that integrate communication, health, and healing. Students will find it compelling and health communication scholars will find it theoretically grounded, provocative, and a welcome addition to the field of health communication."
—Eileen Berlin Ray
Cleveland State University

"Bravo! Harter, Japp, and Beck have given us a volume that liberates the narrative study of health and healing from restrictive models of social research. This pioneering collection of essays and stories will undoubtedly define the field of qualitative health communication for the next generation. The narrative perspectives in this collection inspire and legitimize a distinctly human approach that brings new energy and vitality to the field by showing how stories of health and healing can be told, lived, heard, and understood. A huge hole in the literature of health communication has now been filled."
—Art Bochner
University of South Florida

"Editors Lynn Harter, Phyllis Japp, and Christina Beck, along with an outstanding array of chapter authors, have crafted a tight, engaging, and compelling volume. Individual chapters coalesce almost seamlessly to form a cohesive work that will appeal to many scholars, practitioners, and graduate students across health-related areas of inquiry and community outreach programs. Collectively, then, this edited volume reflects the cutting-edge in health communication thinking and research privileging the narrative paradigm."
—Jim L. Query, Jr.
University of Houston