Healing the Mind Through the Power of Story: The Promise of Narrative Psychiatry

Lewis Mehl-Madrona, M.D., Ph.D.
Bear & Company (2010)
ISBN 9781591430957
Reviewed by Irene Watson for Reader Views (08/10)

 

Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madrona isn’t a newcomer to the field of psychiatry.  He is Associate Professor of Family Medicine and Psychiatry at the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine, Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Hawaii School of Medicine and of Psychology at Argosy University.  He is an author of six books and he lectures all over the world.

His wisdom and knowledge are well respected. In the introduction of “Healing the Mind Through the Power of Story,” Mehl-Madrona says “In what has become an increasingly impersonal world, both medicine and society at large are beginning to realize and rediscover the importance of relationship and story in healing.”  He further explains concepts:

Stories give cognitive and emotional significance to experience.
Stories enhance our creativity and help us to think beyond the here and now.
Stories keep us connected in social networks, which build and shape our brains.
Stories unlock the mysteries of psychological suffering that declarative facts cannot reveal.
We can reinvent psychiatry as the art and science of story.

Studying the Navajo peoples of northern Saskatchewan Mehl-Madrona became aware that “stories are traded and exchanged as commonly as pots, pans, and viruses.” He explains that stories are social neurotransmitters, sending messages no different than the transmission between neurons in the brain.  Understanding this concept makes it more clear of the importance of preserving stories that are passed down for generations and creating new stories to continue passing down.

“Healing the Mind Through the Power of Story” is written not only for those in the field of psychology or psychiatry, but lay people as well.  Understanding the power that stories have in healing the mind, body, and spirit can change the dynamics of ailments. For example, knowing a genetic or negative emotional trait that has been passed down for generations can be affected successfully when the imprint is understood.  Change is possible with re-storying.

Mehl-Madrona is a forerunner with this theory in our society; however, the concept has been used since the beginning of time.  In “Healing the Mind Through the Power of Story,” he is taking us back to basics, a place where innate knowledge prevails.  I encourage you to seek out the stories that will change and shape your life for the better.

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