Article Summary by Helene Scott-Fordsmand In the article “Reversing the Medical Humanities” I make the argument that humanities scholars engaging in medical humanities have tended to think about how they might help improve medicine in different ways – for example by training doctors in empathy and communication, or by acting as a critic that keeps […]
Category: Journal Announcements
Narrative and Its Discontents
Article Summary by Alastair Morrison For several decades, narrative medicine has been the most internationally recognized program for humanities education in medicine. This review article considers new work from within narrative medicine, as well as recent responses to it from other positions within medical humanities, to suggest changes of thinking underway in these fields. Specifically, […]
Metaphors and Decision Making in Parental Blogs About Their Children with Life-Limiting Diseases: Who’s Afraid of the War Metaphor?
Article Summary by Veronica Neefjes When we use war metaphors we think of a particular situation as a fight. War metaphors are widely used to spur people into action; ‘fight climate change’ and ‘war on drugs’ are just two examples. In healthcare war metaphors have a poor reputation because many fear that thinking of especially […]
Performing HeLa: Theatrical Bodies and Living Remains
Article Summary by Emma Cox My work considers the role theatre and performance play in making sense of diverse healthcare experiences, medical histories, and biomedical technologies. My essay in this issue of Medical Humanities is concerned with how theatre, as an embodied artform, can make meaning out of the complicated, traumatic histories that have built up […]
Making the ‘Genetic Counsellor’ in the UK, 1980–1995
Article Summary by Jenny Bangham Genetic counsellors are medical professionals who help parents and patients interpret the results of genetic tests. Genetic testing is routine in pregnancy and paediatrics, and is becoming increasingly prevalent in other specialisms, such as oncology and cardiology. The results of genetic tests are potentially highly emotional—provoking guilt, fear, confusion (as […]
Virtuosic Craft or Clerical Labour: The Rise of the Electronic Health Record and Challenges to Physicians’ Professional Identity (1950–2022)
Article Summary by Lakshmi Krishnan and Michael J. Neuss What is the work of physicians? Are we historians, detectives, magicians, or educators? Or is our craft merely clerical work, our labor just data entry for other users—both human and non-human, intelligent and artificially intelligent—in non-clinical areas like finance and research? Physicians today express deep anxieties […]
Understanding the Value of Art Prompts in an Online Narrative Medicine Workshop: An Exploratory-Descriptive Focus Group Study
Article Summary by Nancy Choe Narrative medicine supports healthcare training by helping healthcare workers develop narrative competence skills and use creativity through writing prompts. Narrative medicine is also used to enhance empathy and counter burnout among healthcare workers. While evidence suggests that arts-based interventions can benefit healthcare workers’ well-being and personal growth, using art prompts […]
Contact Building: Emotional Exchanges Between Counsellees and Counsellors in the Late Socialist Period in Poland
Article Summary by Agnieszka Kościańska This article focuses on Wiesław Sokoluk, one of the key Polish youth counsellors and sex educators active during the late socialist period (the 1970s and 1980s), looking at his path to becoming a sex educator and youth counsellor as well as his practice in both fields. Sokoluk started his career […]
Sparing the Doctor’s Blushes: The Use of Sexually Explicit Films for the Purpose of Sexual Attitude Reassessment (SAR) in the Training of Medical Practitioners in Britain During the 1970s
Article Summary by Rob Irwin How best to prepare healthcare professionals to address their patients’ sexual health and wellbeing concerns is a question still in need of an answer. This article describes an early educational approach, the Sexual Attitude Reassessment (SAR) seminar, that was used in some British medical schools during the 1970s to prepare […]
The Production of Medicoethical Misconduct: Medical Ethics and Vivisection in Wilkie Collins’s Heart and Science
Article Summary by Thomas G. Cole II Authors of popular fiction often question the world around them by telling stories that reflect their world. In so doing, these authors provide a necessary and sometimes powerful commentary on contemporary issues. This was no different for the popular fiction authors of the Victorian era. In this essay, […]