I have long been interested in what is called the Medical Humanities. Therefore I was delighted yesterday when I received my copy of "Mindreadings:Literature and Psychiatry" edited by Femi Oyebode.
Mindreadings is a collection of essays by various health care professionals in the United Kingdom about the medical humanities. The first essay by Allan Beveridge is entitled "The Benefits of Reading Literature". Some of the benefits Beveridge discusses is the enhancement of empathy and the appreciation of the subjective, personal experience of the patient. He also discusses what he calles "aesthetics" which he describes as the ability to perceive situations from multiple perspectives and read between the lines of clinical situations. A third benefit accrues from appreciating the nuances of ethical considerations in complex human situations.
I think Beveridge makes a good start and I can think of other benefits of reading literature for health care and social service professionals. Can you? For example, reading literature helps with an understanding of people who come from different cultures, different religions, different political backgrounds. Reading literature is one of the best ways to enhance one's cultural competence in dealing with diversity.
Another benefit from reading literature is the ability to construct different moral models of the world than the one the practitioner inhabits so that the practitioner is able to contextualize the world view of the patient. Reading literature helps the practitioner become a cultural anthropologist who is able to visit different cultures from his/her arm chair.
The last benefit I will mention in this post is the enjoyment that comes from participating in the humanities. It is a change of pace, and allows a level of relaxation and stimulation away from the difficulties and stresses of everyday practice.
I am interested in your thoughts about the benefits of reading literature and watching films. I am also interested in your recommendations of books and films that you found beneficial and would recommend to others. You might have noticed that I periodcially mention books and films that I think might be of interest to people who read this blog. I am especially interested in how these books and films enhance one's appreciation of life.
One of Rodney's favorite classes in medical school was an elective called Medicine in Literature. As a final project, he wrote a collection of poems about his experiences as a student physician. As a resident, and now a fellow, he has continued to write about his experiences, and many of his poems are very, very good. I've noticed that he tends to write when he has had a particularly difficult case, and I believe that writing poetry about these patients helps him to release a lot of the feelings of frustration and sadness that doctors are not "supposed" to display, but neverthless feel. It is good for him, cathartic, but I think it also honors the relationship between patient and physician and elevates it to something beyond the clinical experience.
ReplyDeleteHi Moe:
ReplyDeleteThanks for you comment and I think you mention another benefit which I overlooked and that is the ability of the clinician to process his/her own experience of working with patients/clients, and their families. It is indeed clarifying, cathartic, and illuminating. Sometimes it is edifying as well and if it is a help to other people's understanding that is an additional benefit.
Thanks for your excellent comment.