Illness is a story, or a few introductory words to narrative medicine and art therapy

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My dear,

Each of us carries his own story, usually unwritten... And if you treat life as a novel, the variety and length of the works would be enormous. We would leaf through thick volumes, adventurous sagas, short novellas suddenly interrupted, stories of great loves, breakthrough discoveries and the touching prose of life.

And on these pages we would also read the reflections of the sick, struggling with the suffering of the body broken by pain. This is evidenced by, for example, diaries whose authors often describe their ailments.
Thus, the patient is the narrator, and the humanist doctor is an attentive and sensitive listener. Because in the words of a sick person there is sometimes hidden the mystery of suffering, its source and course.

But it's not easy to talk about pain.
Therefore, art becomes an important bridge between the patient and the doctor. How much can be expressed through a picture, a melody or a poem...

Art therapy teaches, on the one hand, the interpretation of the patient's creativity, and on the other hand, expressing emotions through art. The art therapist stands between the doctor and the patient and helps to create a communication bridge. A special type of therapy through art is bibliotherapy and fairy tale therapy. The latter is aimed at the youngest.

Narrative medicine, on the other hand, treats literature as an important support for dialogue with the patient. To this end, the interpretation of literary works becomes a valuable skill for medical personnel.

And it is about bibliotherapy and narrative medicine  that I am going to tell you a little bit...