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Everything You Need to Know About Medical Humanities

We often think of the humanities and medicine as two separate trajectories—and we shouldn’t. Why? Medicine is linked to the humanities. Think about it: if you study any aspect of medicine, you care about humans. If you care about humans, you care about what humans do, how they think, how they interact, and their role in the world. If you care about those things, then you care about what humans do. Let’s take a closer look at why you should care about the medical humanities.

Apr 24, 2017
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Everything You Need to Know About Medical Humanities

Humans do more than breathe and eat. We create. We read. We write. We paint. We sculpt. We act. We interact. We talk. We communicate. With each other. All the time.

Physicians care about humanity—why would they choose medicine otherwise, if not for the desire to help humanity in some way? The study of humanity—or the humanities—is relevant to the medical world in an exciting new field called medical humanities.

It bears consideration that the medical humanities—or health humanities—have grown four-fold since 2000.

What are they? As they sound. The study of how we relate to each other in the medical field—doctor-patient and intern-resident. Students learn about things which they can define—but can’t necessarily navigate in the real world of medicine without some direction. Resilience. Empathy. Disability. Death. Dying. Class. Race. Gender. How? Literature, film, stories, art—and at Penn State—comics.

Let’s take a closer look at what they are, why they’re interesting, and why you should care.

Creation concept

What are they?

Simply put, they’re the interdisciplinary study of medicine. Add literature, philosophy, ethics, history, religion, psychology, sociology, geography, theater, film, and visual arts to the science of medicine and you have medical humanities.

Why are they interesting?

doctor examining a baby in a hospital

1. The medical humanities are about humans. Isn’t that what medicine is about? Keeping humans healthy? What does it mean to be human? What is it about humanity that’s worth preserving? What is a physician’s role in the preservation of humanity?

worker in wheelchair in a carpenter's workshop

2. The mind, body, and soul are connected. The field of medical humanities helps us see that. How are our identities shaped by our medical state? Does illness or disability shape us? How does well-being shape us? How does the death of a loved one shape us? How does death change our interactions with others? Look at a piece of art—then consider the artist. What does the artist reveal about her humanity—her condition? What role does medicine and health play in that?

Re-read your Greek mythology. Check out a statue of the Medusa. Let them inform your practice. Your patients will thank you.

PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC - SEPTEMBER 9, 2014: Large group of tourists at Prague central square looking up to Old Town Hall tower.

3. Medicine is a part of history and culture. Ever see One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest? How about Rain Man? Philadelphia?

Every medical student has seen Eakins’s famous paintings, The Agnew Clinic and The Gross Clinic, showing a 19th-century mastectomy. And every medical student should read Michel Foucault’s Madness and Civilization. How has history shaped our treatment of illness? How has it influenced gender roles in medicine?

The medical humanities give us the tools to understand how medicine has changed the shape of our culture and the people in it over time.

Medical Staff Seated In Circle At Case Meeting

4. The medical humanities improve the way people work with each other. To study something in a vacuum never yields innovation. Physicians at all levels need to know how to work with each other, their patients, and other health professionals. How do the humanities give them that? Read a work of literature and understand what motivates people. Read a biography of someone who fascinates you—and apply what you like about that person to your own practice. Use art as a means of communication. When you can understand how other people think and feel through literature, art, music, philosophy, biography, and theater, then you improve not just your medical practice, but who you are as a medical professional.

Why should you care?

Because that’s what good health care professionals do.

Interested?

Check out the MA in Medical Humanities at the University of Kent. You’ll have the opportunity to delve deeply into all facets of medical humanities—and focus on your own interests in the subject. If you’re interested in medical anthropology, consider the programs at London’s Brunel University, or SOAS University of London.