Healing Agents: Christian Perspectives: Healing Myths

Thursday, June 22, 2023

Healing Myths

The Little Mermaid - Statue Copenhagen, Denmark

“It’s fiction! Fiction is the great lie that tells the truth about how the world lives!”

From The Covenant of Water

Come and hear, all you who fear God;

let me tell you what he has done for me.

Psalm 66:16 (NIV)

It was a strange coincidence after just finishing The Covenant of Water to be watching the newest release of The Little Mermaid with my grandchildren. I remember thinking there seem to be similar themes working in both these stories. Hidden behind both these stories is another older tale that is the basis of both these modern myths, “Ondine’s Curse”.

Why do stories have such a powerful resonance over time? Is it the missing element in our current Western medical care? Does healing happen when we can tell the story?

For me, the healing stories are the ones I have heard from patients and physicians that have always had a sense of “awe” and left me wanting to “hear more”. This clinical curiosity is an important foundation of the creative aspect of the practice of medicine. It begins by listening to the patient’s story. It moves the specific story to connect with a larger cultural story of healing. It was one of the joys of the practice of medicine.

Thanks be to God for old and new myths that bring us healing!

Marvin

References

The Little Mermaid, Disney

https://movies.disney.com/the-little-mermaid-2023

Verghese, A. (2023). The Covenant of Water (Oprah’s Book Club). Grove Press.

Demartini Z, Maranha Gatto LA, Koppe GL, Francisco AN, Guerios EE. Ondine's curse: myth meets reality. Sleep Med X. 2020 Jul 13;2:100012.

Zmijewski P; Lynch KA Jr; Lindeman B; Vetter TR

Narrative Medicine: Perioperative Opportunities and Applicable Health Services Research Methods. Anesthesia & Analgesia. 134(3):564-572, 2022 03 01.

Packer, L., Why we need fairy tales

https://storynet.org/why-we-need-fairy-tales/

Hage, M. L. (2011). The Mystery of Healing.