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Freud and his close colleagues published case reports in which they sought to illustrate particular theoretical and clinical issues. This form of case reporting has been the tradition in medicine and psychology, but tradition is now changing. Individuals themselves or close family friends are writing about their own personal experiences with illness, the loss of dear relatives, the effects of divorce, childhood physical and sexual abuse, aging, AIDS, Alzheimer's, accidents, surgery, and a host of other calamities. These authors are closely related to autobiographers and biographers. Since they relate their own experiences and what these have meant to them and their families, issues of confidentiality are less of a problem than when the caregiver or distant biographer publishes the narrative of a tragedy and its outcome. Verification of facts, however, can be a problem, especially in autobiography, where the author is also the subject of the narrative. But the feelings, the reactions, the meanings of the tragic—at times catastrophic—events still is very valuable. They allow the reader to share, empathize, and compare experiences and feelings. Readers can gain new perspectives and different appreciations of the dilemmas facing another person and close relatives.