ABSTRACT
The introduction frames the book by distinguishing the relationship between nursing and humanities. It sets out broad principles, grounding humanities in a basic human drive for meaning, which leads to complex cultural formations, extending through time. This is juxtaposed with nursing, as a human activity with a distinct standpoint, that brings concerns about health, illness, and care into cultural networks of meaning, hence the need for the humanities in nursing. There is an overview of the chapters, outlining the initial descriptive surveys of the opening chapters, then the development of a theoretical position that puts humanities into dialogue with embodied cognition, following by essays exploring separate topics in humanities and nursing, and a final chapter discussing future developments. The introduction concludes with a discussion of the intended audience for the book, primarily academic, but including all nurses who find connections between arts and humanities and their nursing life.
