Narrative Medicine Under the Guidance of Traditional Chinese Medicine Theory

Abstract

This paper is an exploration into the practice of narrative medicine in the clinical setting guided by the theory and approaches of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). By adopting the theory of TCM, the author attempted to provide the patients with systematic treatment from the perspective of society-psychology-biology under the guidance of both the unity of Heaven and Man, and the unity of Xing (Body) and Shen (Mind/Spirit) through his clinical practice. Guided by yin-yang and Wu Xing (Five Elements) theory and focusing on the social relations of the patients for any possible relationships between patients’ social, psychological and biological state, the author took the patients’ emotion management as a point of departure and helped the patients recover both physically and psychologically by promoting positive transformation in patients’ social, psychological, and biological state. A clinical case was provided at the end of this paper to demonstrate how the above theory was put into practice. Narrative medicine under the guidance of TCM theory can supplement modern medical humanity practices as well as extend the scope of modern medical treatment from the perspective of the unity of Heaven and Man, by enriching the content of narrative medicine, and promoting the medical model from biological medical model toward social-psychological-biological model.