One English translation of the Hippocratic Oath reads, “I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon’s knife or the chemist’s drug.” Our modern understanding of medicine centers the scientific and professional knowledge of health practitioners, but the truth is that we also depend on these practitioners’ empathy, insight, and curiosity about their patients’ humanity. In this class, we’ll be addressing the connection between medicine and humanity by addressing the social, cultural, and ethical dimensions of the human health experience through the lens of what, in academia, is called “medical humanities.”
Using a variety of texts, including novels, short stories, podcasts, essays, and TV shows, we’ll investigate the history of medicine, how it is portrayed in media, and how it affects the relationship between patient and practitioner. We will address the ways that our perceptions of health, wellness, and medical practice are informed by social, political, and cultural frameworks. This class will investigate topics such as patients’ rights, social determinants of health, mental health, disability, neurodiversity, body size, and more.