[Functional somatic syndrome: from the viewpoint of narrative-based medicine]

The concept of functional somatic syndrome (FSS) may be useful to categorize the patients with indefinite multiple complaints without organic disease, and to manage them well. From the perspective of narrative approach in medicine, a narrative is a chronological account of the patient's experience of suffering, which starts in his/her life-world and is socially constructed and re-constructed through the transaction with health-professionals as well as ray-people. Through narratives, the patient can make sense on his/her illness experience. Sharing a good illness narrative may transform both the sufferer and the experience of suffering and may be salutogeneic. In this paper, the concept of FSS is discussed from the perspective of narrative construction of illness, and is examined whether it is more useful than other traditional disease concepts.