The medical humanities

Rita Charon, Professor of Clinical Medicine at Columbia University, has notably observed that it is neither possible nor desirable to define the relation between literature and medicine solely in relation to the emergence of the medical humanities as a recognizable field or discipline; rather, she argues, their connection ‘is enduring because it is inherent’ (Charon 2000: 24). Charon has played a leading role in creating the movement of narrative medicine, which is centrally concerned with opening up new approaches in medical education, and its core principles are encapsulated in her monograph Narrative Medicine (2006). ¹ For her, the clinician’s task is essentially one of narrative interpretation: the doctor is required to listen attentively to a complex and multi-faceted narrative, told in the patient case history, in the symptoms of the body, and in medical images and laboratory test results, all of which need to cohere into the formulation of a diagnosis and treatment plan.