Ti racconto ancora la storia di mio figlio, così posso parlarti di me

The present paper, starting from research data, aims to explore and discuss the assumption that repeated narrative can help the narrator to understand and face the illness experience. Particularly, some cases of parental illness will be considered, that is parents’ stories on their siblings illness. Firstly, this paper describes a theoretical model based on the circularity among narrative processes, autobiographical memory and quality of relationship, as well as a recent approach focused on the promotion of the narrative act in medical practice, that is the Narrative Based Medicine approach. Furthermore, the expressive writing paradigm by James Pennebaker, focused on the repetition of past events emotional significant, is presented, and it is underlined the role of some linguistic markers and their change through the repeated narrative procedure. Secondly, this paper discusses some research evidences demonstrating that re-narrative procures the meaning and the context useful to face the illness experience.