Introduction to the Medical Humanities

Medical Humanities is a humanistic and interdisciplinary approach to the topic of medicine. It explores the experience of health and illness as captured through the expressive arts (painting, music and literature), across historical periods and in different cultures, and as interpreted by humanistic scholars in the humanities and social sciences as well as in medicine and policy. Its goal is to give students and scholars an opportunity to explore a more holistic and meaning- centered perspective on medical issues. It draws attention not only to diagnosis, but to the meaning and experience of illness and healing, to the way that medicine is an art form as well as a science, and to the way institutions and culture shape illness.