This course is a broad introduction to medical humanities, an interdisciplinary field that engages critically with various aspects of health care, such as the concepts, practices, values, and experiences of patients and clinicians. Topics that may be addressed include how medical practice has changed over time; our ideas of health, illness, disease, pain, and suffering; the role of stories in clinical care and patient experiences; aging and dying; and what doctors should know about religion and spirituality. We will give special attention to how medicine, health, and illness are portrayed in fiction, poetry, memoirs, and movies and learn how to closely read those texts. Students will be invited to think, read, and write across genres in global medical humanities and learn to use narrative accounts and concepts from the humanities to expand our understanding of how biosocial, medical, and ethical realities actively shape each other.
The objective of the elective course is to increase the ethical sensitivity of medical students through the promotion of introspection and reflection on social issues.