The limits of narrative: medical student resistance to confronting inequality and oppression in literature and beyond

Abstract

To reduce student resistance, we pose a more critical approach to narrative inquiry in medical settings that may deepen students' willingness to imagine what it is like to be someone who is suffering, and to work against oppressive social structures that sustain such suffering. Thus, we recommend moving narrative inquiry beyond a focus on the self and the patient in that individualised, circumscribed relationship and into a collective process involving the social, political, cultural and economic conditions that affect health and well-being.