HMNT 325 Healing Words : The literature of healthcare: Medicine in the Arts

Over the past forty years, the health humanities, previously called the medical humanities, has emerged as one of the most exciting fields for interdisciplinary scholarship, advancing humanistic inquiry into bioethics, human rights, health care, and the uses of technology. It has also helped inspire medical practitioners to engage in deeper reflection about the human elements of their practice.
In Health Humanities Reader, editors Therese Jones, Delese Wear, and Lester D. Friedman have assembled fifty-four leading scholars, educators, artists, and clinicians to survey the rich body of work that has already emerged from the field--and to imagine fresh approaches to the health humanities in these original essays. The collection's contributors reflect the extraordinary diversity of the field, including scholars from the disciplines of disability studies, history, literature, nursing, religion, narrative medicine, philosophy, bioethics, medicine, and the social sciences.

This fascinating guide to medical education introduces the reader to the historical development of this important subject through 100 powerful images from the prestigious Wellcome Library Collection that highlight key figures in the field and innovations that have taken place, not just in the recent past but over the centuries. The readable text that accompanies each image both describes that image and shows how the ideas arising from it have helped to shape modern medical education, with relevance to current clinical practice. This will be an invaluable and visual introduction for students, academics, managers and practitioners looking to gain a better understanding of the evolution of educational practice in medicine, and how it might progress in the future.

This textbook brings the humanities to students in order to evoke the humanity of students. It helps to form individuals who take charge of their own minds, who are free from narrow and unreflective forms of thought, and who act compassionately in their public and professional worlds. Using concepts and methods of the humanities, the book addresses undergraduate and premed students, medical students, and students in other health professions, as well as physicians and other healthcare practitioners.

This groundbreaking book argues that health and medical media, with their unique goals and production values, constitute a rich cultural and historical archive and deserve greater scholarly attention. Original essays by leading media scholars and historians of medicine demonstrate that Americans throughout the twentieth century have learned about health, disease, medicine, and the human body from movies.

Fifteen essays written by and for writing teachers in a variety of settings<-->classrooms, substance-abuse treatment centers, AIDS support groups<-->explore both the theories and practicalities of using writing to approach, understand, and come to terms with devastating experiences, such as grief, death, and illness. Editors Anderson (U. of Arkansas, Little Rock) and MacCurdy (Ithaca College) provide the introductory chapter. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

In this inspiring book, based on her twenty years of research, highly acclaimed author and teacher Louise DeSalvo reveals the healing power of writing. DeSalvo shows how anyone can use writing as a way to heal the emotional and physical wounds that are an inevitable part of life. Contrary to what most self-help books claim, just writing won't help you; in fact, there's abundant evidence that the wrong kind of writing can be damaging.
DeSalvo's program is based on the best available and most recent scientific studies about the efficacy of using writing as a restorative tool. With insight and wit, she illuminates how writers, from Virginia Woolf to Henry Miller to Audre Lorde to Isabel Allende, have been transformed by the writing process. Writing as a Way of Healing includes valuable advice and practical techniques to guide and inspire both experienced and beginning writers.