Therapeutic uses of oral history techniques in medicine

Use of the oral history technique in clinical medicine supplies significant additional psycho-social and other data that supplement the regular medical history and illuminate the psychological, social, and spiritual background of healthy or ailing aging patients. This information enables the physician to become better acquainted with the effects of the major crises of living on his patients and to use this information and insight to help the patient and his family to understand themselves better and to cope more successfully with the problems of living, aging, and illness. This presentation describes some practical applications of oral history techniques in clinical medical practice and discusses their usefulness for gerontological research.