Nurses and counselors at Hospice in North Carolina noticed that terminally ill clients often tell life stories to caregivers and family. Hospice wanted to sensitize staffmembers to recognize, respect, and respond effectively. I co-directed a project to videotape four Hospice clients reviewing their lives. Subsequently, we held a conference where academics and health care providers shared perspectives on life story. With story narration, the teller can symbolically transcend dependencies and isolation associated with terminal diagnosis. Hospice staff emphasized therapeutic aims in life review, believing that negotiation about life experience can help clients resolve problematic feelings. This article explores resolution of tensions between a therapeutic paradigm and an anthropological priority of maximizing storyteller autonomy. In addition, the analysis explores potential pitfalls of anthropological praxis in such projects. If life review becomes reimbursable, cultural and economic forces may reify and deform stories into a commodity. We should guard against transformations that undermine narrator autonomy.

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