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Two stories and an ode

¹ Medical Humanities, University of Sheffield Institute of General Practice and Primary Care, Northern General Hospital, Sheffield, S5 7AU; g.bolton@sheffield.ac.uk.

Literature can enable insight and understanding in both writer and reader.

A reader has issues explained in memorable ways. I know that icebergs make a terrible racket grinding against each other because Coleridge has told me so: "The ice was here, the ice was there, / The ice was all around; / It cracked, and growled, and roared and howled, / Like noises in a swound'¹ (despite never knowing what a swound is). And I empathise with Roquentin and his struggle with connectedness.²

Significant health benefits from writing about stressful events have been reported from many randomised control trials—for example, Smyth³ and Pennebaker et al⁴). The opinion in a JAMA editorial was: "Were the authors to have provided similar outcome evidence about a new drug, it likely would be in widespread use within a short time'.⁵ Sadly creative writing is never likely to be promoted by a drugs company. . . . [Full text of this article]

M A Petrone²

² 2 Wren St, London, WC1X 0HA michele@petrone.freeserve.co.uk

L Buckell³

³ 107 Denison St, Beeston, Nottingham, NG9 1DQ; nickbuckell@ntlworld.com

E Tiffany-Castiglioni⁴

⁴ College of Veterinary Medicine, Texas A&M University, College Station TX 77843-4458, USA; ecastiglioni@cvm.tamu.edu