This site, established in 1994 at New York University
School of Medicine, is dedicated to providing a resource for scholars,
educators, students, patients, and others who are interested in
the work of medical humanities. We define the term "medical
humanities" broadly to include an interdisciplinary field
of humanities (literature, philosophy, ethics, history and religion),
social science (anthropology, cultural studies, psychology, sociology),
and the arts (literature, theater, film, and visual arts) and
their application to medical education and practice. The humanities
and arts provide insight into the human condition, suffering,
personhood, our responsibility to each other, and offer a historical
perspective on medical practice. Attention to literature and the
arts helps to develop and nurture skills of observation, analysis,
empathy, and self-reflection -- skills that are essential for
humane medical care. The social sciences help us to understand
how bioscience and medicine take place within cultural and social
contexts and how culture interacts with the individual experience
of illness and the way medicine is practiced.
The largest section of this medical humanities
web site is the searchable Literature,
Arts, and Medicine Database. The database holds annotations
of works of literature, art, and film relevant to the illness
experience, medical education and practice -- fiction; poetry;
memoir, biography, autobiography; literary, cultural, and social
criticism; visual art; film; drama. The annotations are written
by an invited editorial board of scholars from all over North
America.
We administer an e-mail listserv,
Lit-Med, for those interested in discussing any of the topics
mentioned above; archives of the messages are available at this
site.
Syllabi in medical humanities from a number of institutions are posted
at our syllabus site.
Also at this web site is a directory of individuals engaged in various aspects of medical humanities
work. The directory is organized by country, state, and institution.
Felice Aull, Ph.D., M.A.
New York University School of Medicine
