RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Medical Humanities: a vision and some cautionary notes
JF Medical Humanities
JO J Med Humanit
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Institute of Medical Ethics
SP 33
OP 36
DO 10.1136/mh.29.1.33
VO 29
IS 1
A1 S Pattison
YR 2003
UL http://mh.bmj.com/content/29/1/33.abstract
AB This article aims to engender discussion about the nature and future of medical humanities. First, a normative personal vision of medical humanities as an inclusive movement is outlined. Some of the problems that may emerge if medical humanities conceives itself too narrowly are then discussed. The case of the rise of the medical ethics movement is used to show what can happen to a movement that restricts itself too quickly and then the stages of the “death course of a discipline” are described and assayed. The article concludes with a plea for medical humanities to remain a “broad church”, exploratory, pluralistic movement rather than aiming to become a paramedical academic discipline.