Browsing by Subject "literature and medicine"
Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Beyond cultural competency: Using literature to foster socially conscious medicine(2008-07-07) J. Ernest Aguilar; Anne Hudson Jones, Ph.D.; Sayantani DasGupta, M.D., M.P.H.; Robert Bulik, Ph.D.; Howard Brody, M.D., Ph.D.; Harold Y. Vanderpool, Th.M., Ph.D.For at least the past three decades, training programs in cultural competency have enjoyed increasing popularity in medical schools and in continuing medical education. Proponents of cultural competency generally hold that when physicians and other health-care professionals are trained in cultural issues, there will be a reduction in race-based disparities in both the access to and the quality of health care. Yet there has been little evidence to support this claim. Further, a conceptual analysis of cultural competency suggests that this type of training may serve only to maintain or further aggravate the current state of affairs faced by cultural and racial minorities. New pedagogical models are needed. These models will need to include an opportunity (and the support) for the unlearning of old patterns of viewing society. Participants will need to reflect on the social factors and structures that are more likely to lead to race-based disparities. These factors include but are not limited to a legacy of interracial hostility and mistrust, the unjust distribution of social power, and a defective understanding of the proper posture to be taken towards the one that is other. Educational theories that promote participatory, transformative, and reflective learning experience must be used to shape new educational efforts. Reforms in medical education can draw more heavily from the theories developed by scholars in literature and medicine. These theorists argue that the development of narrative skills contributes to improved communication across interpersonal differences. Further, many scholars agree that reading well-written works of literature contributes to the skill required for recognizing injustice and engaging in the moral and ethical reflection needed to address it.Item Cultivating moral medicine: Ethical criticism and the relevance of Richard Selzer to medical ethics education(2006-07-17) John David Caskey; Anne Hudson Jones, Ph.D.; Tod Chambers, Ph.D.; Sally S. Robinson, M.D.; Ronald A. Carson, Ph.D.; Michele A. Carter, Ph.D.In much of her work, and especially in \"Love's Knowledge,\" Martha Nussbaum argues explicitly for the essential contributions literature can and, indeed, must make to ethical education. In supporting her case, Nussbaum draws heavily upon the thought of Aristotle and the literature of Henry James to affirm her emphasis on the “noncommensurability of valuable things,” the “priority of the particular,” and the “rationality of emotions and imagination,” each of which she deems essential to answer the Aristotelian question \"How should one live?\". In this dissertation, I undertake a project similar to Nussbaum’s, \r\nthough one more specific to the practice of medicine. Rather than investigate the general moral question of how one ought to live, I instead seek to explore how one ought to live as a clinician. In the first part of the dissertation, I undertake a critical examination of the arguments of Nussbaum and others who describe the practice of the ethical criticism of literature. Then, in the second part, I assess the relevance of these arguments to the practice of medicine through an examination of the writings of Richard Selzer, in an attempt to determine whether his work, and, by way of extension, other shorter works of literature like his, might contribute to the moral practice of medicine as effectively as Nussbaum asserts James might to the practice of living. Ultimately, I assert that Selzer's writings, by way of both the content and the form of his narrative, can indeed accomplish this end, contributing unique and essential moral truths to the conception of ethics fundamental to medical education and practice.Item Physician, heal thyself: Desire and impairment in physicians' Writings(2006-03-31) Marissa Anne Gostanian; Anne Hudson Jones, Ph.D.; Ronald A. Carson, Ph.D.; Michael O'Boyle, M.D., Ph.D.Traditionally medicine and literature have lain on opposite ends of the spectrum, but for some physicians, writing is complementary to medicine. I examine selected works of physician-writers that express the difficulties and triumphs of their journeys through their medical career. Through narratives we can learn not only about the world of medicine, but also about the reasons physicians act and respond as they do. \r\n According to Jacques Lacan, desire is the quality of more that leaves us lacking and wanting something else. This quality of more is what I will explore in physicians’ writings. Lacanian desire is one key to the prevalence of the number of impaired physicians. \r\n This work can be a catalyst for change within the medical profession as instructors see and understand the difficulties that lie ahead for their students. Preventive and treatment plans for impaired physicians may include identifying desire as opposed to simply treating behaviors. \r\nItem The stories we sell: A narrative analysis of direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising\r\n(2007-03-12) Angela Lea Scott; Anne Hudson Jones, Ph.D.; Therese Jones, Ph.D.; Ronald A. Carson, Ph.D.; Michele Carter, Ph.D.; Harold Vanderpool, Ph.D.; Frederick H. Huang, M.D.This dissertation focuses on the issue of direct-to-consumer (DTC) television advertising for prescription drugs. First, it explores the terms and categories currently used to understand and debate this issue. Then, it draws from the traditions of history, hermeneutic philosophy, interpretive anthropology, visual studies, and the ethical criticism of literature to develop and advocate an alternative paradigm for thinking about pharmaceutical marketing. The project involves a theoretical exploration of an interpretive, and specifically narrative, approach to drug commercials, as well as a demonstration of this approach in three analytical chapters, each dedicated to a single advertisement. \r\nThe methods used in this dissertation are those of humanities scholarship, and include careful and comparative reading, rigorous linguistic interpretation, philosophical investigation, and narrative analysis. By bringing these scholastic approaches to bear on the issue of DTC advertising, this project offers a novel perspective from which to consider issues in health policy, one which allows and encourages an active, participatory stance on the part of patients and the public as a whole. This kind of critical, interpretive reframing of pharmaceutical advertising not only divests the industry of the free-market rhetoric upon which it relies to justify its marketing practices, it also directs public discourse towards a careful examination of the suggested narratives conveyed by these commercials. Ultimately, this narrative paradigm highlights the extent to which individuals are free to rigorously evaluate, and then deliberately accept, reject, or retell the stories told by drug companies about health, illness, and American medicine.\r\n