This essay examines the low impact of narrative medicine on complementary and alternative medicine. On the opposite side stands the general practice of the National Health Systems (In Italy: SSN) in which, several years of bureaucratization have been reduced the communication between doctor and patient, and the narrative medicine is in an unique position to bridge this communication gap. Instead, in the complementary and alternative medicine the health-care paradigm and its semantic structure help to develop both the communication between therapist and patient and the development of the self-reflexivity. This illustrates why narrative medicine does not represent an innovation in the "world of unorthodox medicine" and why it represents an innovative approach in general practice.
Keywords: Medicina narrativa, medicine alternative, relazione medicopaziente, biografia, sociologia della salute, illness.