[The importance of biographical approaches in nursing science]

Critical life events (e. g. disease, loss of be loved one) biographically represent important turning points, which concerned people have to cope and deal with. While biographical research, which is established in the human and social sciences, has been dealing for a long time with typical features, such as on the type of a disease-dependent burden and coping processes, biographical oriented research approaches in nursing science are in their early stages. The article at hand has its goal in discussing the connectivity, particularly the social-interpretative biographical research in nursing science and their relevance for the development of supporting concepts regarding nursing; with the intention to rehabilitate the sufferer as the author of his own life story.