Education and debate: A sense of landscape
- Royal Free and University College Medical School, London
- Author for correspondence: Dr Deborah Kirklin, Lecturer in Medical Humanities, The Medical Humanities Unit, Department of Primary Care and Population Sciences, Royal Free Campus, Rowland Hill Street, London NW3 2PF. email: d.kirklin{at}rfhsm.ac.uk
“He never entered into relation with the picture as a whole—never faced, so to speak, its physiognomy. He had no sense whatever of a landscape or scene.”1
Medical humanities provides one way to get a sense of the landscape in which individuals and societies experience sickness and health. In this issue's Education and debate section Ruth Richardson, an interdisciplinary historian, uses a highly topical subject to show that an appreciation of medical history can illuminate current thinking in medicine. Her paper is offered, therefore, not simply or even primarily as an historical account but rather as a complementary perspective within the multifaceted approach offered by medical humanities. An education broadened by the humanities is, of course, no guarantee that a better …
