By Anna McFarlane The idea of the ‘posthuman’ has been around in literary theory, the field in which I was trained, for some time now. When we think about key texts we might turn to Donna Haraway’s ‘A Cyborg Manifesto’, in which she argues that the posthuman figure of the cyborg offers a model for thinking […]
Category: Provocations
These blog posts should argue a point of contention within the field, either taking a new perspective on existing issues or suggesting a new approach to a problem. These contribute a field-shaping voice by providing a place for scholars to stake a claim on new research areas. Responses are encouraged/
Word count: up to 500
References: included in word count total
Does Narrative Medicine Have a Place at the Frontline of Medicine?
This guest blog post is by Liam Dwyer, a postgraduate medical student at Trinity College, Dublin, where medical training encompasses medicine and health as well as humanities, provoking students to conceptualise medicine differently; not simply as a clinical science, but with a more holistic perspective. Here he explores the role of narrative medicine, both in medical training and its practicality in a clinical […]
Widening the Lens: Guest Post by Brandy Schillace
Widening the Lens | Medical Humanities Brandy Schillace Author, Historian and Adventurer at the Intersection (http://brandyschillace.com) Recently, I read and reviewed Identity and Difference: John Locke and the Invention of Consciousness by Etienne Balibar. One of the points brought up in the lengthy introduction by Stella Sanford is that the reception of the work […]
James Poskett: The social narcissist
Me, me, me. What could be more antisocial than a preoccupation with one’s own life at the expense of others? The Greek myth of Narcissus perhaps captured it best. The proud young hunter, uninterested in the affections of others, found satisfaction in his own reflection. Consumed by self-love and unable to leave his mirror image, […]
James Poskett: What to do with patients’ stories?
Narrative is a hot topic in the medical humanities. It can also be bewildering. Over the years literary theory has helped to bring the relevance of patient’s stories to the forefront of medical practice. But, as Johanna Shapiro notes in her recent paper Illness narratives, critical approaches to such stories have also complicated the practical […]
James Poskett: Retrospective diagnosis – it’s not (all) bad
Did Julius Caesar suffer from epilepsy? Was Mad King George mad? Did Tutankhamun have Klippel-Feil syndrome? Retrospective diagnosis, particularly of notable historical figures, makes me feel uneasy. For one, it seems to fly in the face of contemporary historiography in which diseases are recognised as influenced by the social, historical and linguistic context. Even the […]
James Poskett: Storytelling in the theatre
Telling the Patient’s Story details a theatre company’s attempts to develop medical students’ case presentation skills. Workshops, covering everything from improvisation, personal monologues and body language, had a marked effect on the students, with all participants agreeing that the training improved their delivery of patient histories. http://mh.bmj.com/content/37/1/18.abstract So, the arts and humanities can help medical […]
Eating yourself sick in pregnancy: why it would be NICE to understand the historical context
Earlier this month the UK’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence produced very welcome guidance for all of those who have a direct or indirect role in, and responsibility for women who are pregnant or who are planning a pregnancy and mothers who have had a baby in the last 2 years. http://guidance.nice.org.uk/PH27 As […]