The Humanities in Medicine – Distancing and the distance between us

In the first issue of this journal Greaves and Evans1 characterised the medical humanities as a spectrum with an additive view of the relationship between humanities disciplines and medicine at one end and an integrated view at the other. The first part of the paper by Louis-Courvoisier and Wenger2 represents a good example of the integrated view of medical humanities, addressing as it does a theoretical underpinning for the inclusion of the teaching of history and literature in medical education, the practical value of this teaching for medical students and the tools provided by these disciplines to the teaching of medical students. The second part of the paper deals with the difficulties both actual and potential for teachers in delivering such a programme. The discussion of these areas is based on their own experience but may have much wider currency and provide a detailed reflective account of areas of importance to the place of Medical Humanities in medical …