Contrasting epistemologies: Biomedicine, narrative medicine and indigenous story medicine

BackgroundNarrative Medicine (NM) and Indigenous Story Medicine both use narrative to understand and effect health, but their respective conceptualizations of narrative differ. AimsI contrast the concept of narrative in NM with that of Indigenous Story Medicine. Materials and MethodsThe article relies Western narrative theorists as well as Indigenous epistemologists to frame a discussion-by-contrast of the Judeo-Christian creation myth with a Haundenosaunee Creation Story. ResultsI demonstrate that the deficiencies of Narrative Medicine exist because the latter's use of narrative is a mere application in an otherwise reductive field, whereas Indigenous epistemologies rely on story as medicine itself. DiscussionOMIT. ConclusionI call for more scholars to take up different narratives to further investigate the ethical space between NM and Indigenous Story Medicine.