Commentary on: 'The argument from example in health communication: Persuading and enabling patients to live a healthier life'

This commentary responds to Hoeken et al. (2018)'s article on the uses of the narrative argument from example in the context of medical argumentation. Hoeken et al. demonstrate that a fundamental question still needs to be answered, to wit: what is narrative about the narrative argument from example? It is argued that the authors touch upon (but fail to fully grasp) the ideological dimension of narrative, more specifically the process of narrativization -- an effective modus operandi of ideology, as it legitimizes and unifies a series of events by embedding them in a coherent story. To narrativize means to evoke an individual or a group of individuals that the audience can identify with, and to insert that individual or group in a transformative story with a preferred, seemingly ‘natural’ outcome. It is this process that makes the argument from example truly effective.