Text analysis theories are applied to understanding medical histories, doctors and scholars have the opportunity to develop a more nuanced and multifaceted appreciation of these accounts. A patient's story is rarely 'just a story', but is rather a conscious and unconscious representation of intricate personal motives and prevailing metanarrative influences. In general, this narrative complexity is beneficial as it limits readers' and listeners' naïve assumptions about credibility and authenticity. However, the increasing number of studies questioning various aspects of personal narratives may have the unintended consequence of de-legitimising the patient voice due to concerns about its credibility. Moreover, the academy's recent focus on transgressive, boundary-breaking alternatives, while aiming to align what constitutes acceptable and even valuable stories in medicine, may inadvertently trivialise more conventional, conformist stories as inauthentic. Recognising the not inconsiderable pitfalls awaiting the interpreter of illness stories, doctors and scholars should approach patient stories with an attitude of narrative humility, despite the inevitable limitations of credibility and authenticity.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/1467-9566.00252