Medical Humanities最新文献

{"title":"Impossible motherhood: a health humanities reading of two monologues for women.","authors":"Leah Sidi","doi":"10.1136/medhum-2024-013094","DOIUrl":"10.1136/medhum-2024-013094","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Separated by a gap of 27 years, Anna Reynold's <i>Jordan</i> (1992) and Gary Owen's <i>Iphigenia in Splott</i> (2015) offer, on the surface, dramaturgically similar critiques of the impact of poverty on motherhood. Both plays are critically acclaimed monologues for women, which describe the death of a baby following inadequate interventions from health and/or social care services. This article examines the different theatrical contexts for these plays and offers a situated reading of the representation of maternal crisis in circumstances of social deprivation. When considered in parallel, <i>Jordan</i> and <i>Iphigenia in Splott</i> reveal the persistent vulnerability faced by low-income mothers and would-be mothers under conditions of Thatcherite and austerity governing. In the context of the health humanities, they reveal how austerity government shapes the lives of women through the scarcity of adequate maternal health and social care services. By placing Owen's play in dialogue with the 1990s feminist monologue, I suggest that Owen posits a dramaturgical through-line between post-2008 austerity policies and the socio-political conditions that concerned second wave feminists. <i>Iphigenia in Splott</i> highlights the post-2008 crisis of care and demonstrates its continuity with forms of social marginalisation, housing precarity and 'hollowing out' introduced under Thatcher and thematised two decades earlier in <i>Jordan</i>.</p>","PeriodicalId":46435,"journal":{"name":"Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":"268-275"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143013896","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Being invited into another: transforming bodily awareness through co-creative movement after cancer illness.","authors":"Martin Høybye, Sarah Pini, Marie Hallager Andersen, Mette Terp Høybye","doi":"10.1136/medhum-2025-013257","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2025-013257","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this article, we share participants' reflections on five workshops offering a co-creative movement practice with peers in cancer rehabilitation. Due to illness and treatment, many young adult cancer survivors experience mental and physical challenges for years post-treatment. Adolescents and Young Adult (AYA) patients with cancer are a group of patients aged 15-39. Using the term here, we refer solely to Young Adults, as participants in our study were 29-39 years old. In the workshops, co-creative movement scores were chosen to enhance bodily awareness and to gradually introduce bodily proximity with others as trust increased in the shared space. Themes were collectively identified at the beginning of the intervention. Shared group reflections, individual reflective work and ethnographic interviews bring participant voices to the front, sharing both narratives of the unique survivorship challenges faced by the participants and how the co-creative movement practice helped the group reconnect holistically with themselves after severe illness. Recurring in many reflections was the sentiment that the illness journey had made participants experience life beyond their years, prompting negotiations of a new self, a '2.0' version, impacted by severe illness. Many reflections touched on reclaiming bodily autonomy after having had to relinquish control of oneself during treatment. Participants described a reconnection being forged between mind and body during the intervention. Shifts in ontology and agency were reported throughout the course of the five workshops, suggesting that the bodywork was helpful in relation to working towards healing and sensing oneself as a whole human being post-treatment.</p>","PeriodicalId":46435,"journal":{"name":"Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144162754","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"'Captivating voices': evaluation of a patient-centred animated video on excessive physical exercise and eating disorders.","authors":"Gerrit Brandt, Heike Bartel, Georgios Paslakis","doi":"10.1136/medhum-2024-013003","DOIUrl":"10.1136/medhum-2024-013003","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This project aimed to evaluate the acceptance of a short, animated video addressing excessive exercise within the context of eating disorder (ED) behaviours among diverse target groups, assess its impact and explore potential associations with disordered eating risk. An online survey was conducted, recruiting 170 participants who were shown a 3-minute and 11-second long animated video portraying narratives of individuals with lived experiences related to excessive exercise and ED. Participants provided demographic information, engaged in the video evaluation answering a 9-item questionnaire and completed a subsequent ED screening and a drive for muscularity questionnaire. In an optional open-ended comment section, participants provided suggestions, feelings, ideas and criticism. Individuals identified as at risk for disordered eating reported a significantly higher personal impact of the video, including the motivation to self-reflect on their personal exercise habits. Qualitative analyses revealed themes related to suggestions for the video's use, general reflections on sports behaviours and ED, and reactions to the video's artistic design. This interdisciplinary project underscores the potential of artistic animated short videos co-designed with individuals with lived experience in conveying narratives and fostering introspection among individuals at risk for ED and excessive exercise behaviours. Further exploration and refinement of interdisciplinary artistic approaches are recommended to enhance effectiveness and inclusivity in addressing ED and associated behaviours.</p>","PeriodicalId":46435,"journal":{"name":"Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":"260-267"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143013883","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Cost of Dying Exhibition: public, professional and political reactions to a visual exhibition depicting experiences of poverty at the end of life.","authors":"Sam Quinn, Naomi Richards","doi":"10.1136/medhum-2024-012950","DOIUrl":"10.1136/medhum-2024-012950","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Public health approaches to palliative care are internationally endorsed for their potential to improve the social determinants of dying such as energy costs, transport and housing. Enhancing public understanding of inequities in end of life experiences, which exist even in economically advanced countries, is vital if the value of public health approaches are to be endorsed and invested in. Visual exhibitions have a strong tradition of raising awareness and influencing public health discourse. The UK-based Cost of Dying exhibition (April-August 2023) presented real examples of how financial hardship and deprivation intersect with end of life experience through professional portraits, photovoice imagery taken by individuals at the end of their lives, and digital stories co-produced with bereaved relatives. Three iterations of the exhibition were displayed at public venues and a health conference. Evaluation methods comprised anonymous feedback cards (n=208), panel discussions and social media reactions. Thematic analysis was used to identify themes within the feedback. The emotional resonance of the exhibition was a key theme, with attendees expressing sadness, anger, empathy and hope. Visitors found the exhibition thought-provoking and expressed that it countered existing stereotypes about what it means to experience financial hardship at the end of life. The exhibition spurred calls for change, with some attendees questioning in what capacity they could help. Individuals with expertise in end of life care reported that the imagery validated their professional experiences. In conclusion, the Cost of Dying exhibition made visible the struggles endured by individuals confronting financial hardship and material deprivation at the end of life. Such exhibitions can challenge the traditional view of dying as a swift process taking place sequestered in institutions, revealing that it often unfolds over time and individuals may continue to live at home in the community, struggling with unmet needs and unresponsive state services.</p>","PeriodicalId":46435,"journal":{"name":"Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":"207-217"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141447302","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Woman in the brain, or the fraught relationship between feminism and mental health.","authors":"Cinzia Greco","doi":"10.1136/medhum-2024-013033","DOIUrl":"10.1136/medhum-2024-013033","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article explores the complicated relationship between feminism and women's mental health. I discuss the differences and convergences between neurodiversity and mental health and how feminist theory has approached these topics. While contrasting the pathologisation that mental health disciplines can apply to women, feminism has often reduced mental health conditions to mere manifestations of patriarchy. Using autism as a prism, I propose that the neurodiversity paradigm can be a means to discuss diverse brain and mind experiences without reinforcing pathologisation. The choice of autism has two motivations: while autism is a neurological difference and not a mental illness, the complex experiences of autistic women exemplify their otherness and exclusion, highlighting the marginalisation of women with atypical brains not just in society but also in feminist theories and practicesDrawing on documentary sources and discussing theoretical approaches from the UK, the USA, and, to a lesser extent, other English-speaking countries, this article aims to advance the feminist discourse on mental health. I illustrate the necessity to enrich feminist perspectives on mental health and suggest ways to make feminist theories and practices more inclusive of neurodivergent and mad women.</p>","PeriodicalId":46435,"journal":{"name":"Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":"228-236"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142899133","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How to prove her wrong: hierarchies of watching in the case of the fasting girl Sarah Jacob.","authors":"Marie-Andrée Jacob","doi":"10.1136/medhum-2024-012983","DOIUrl":"10.1136/medhum-2024-012983","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The article revisits the story of the watch of Sarah Jacob and her miraculous fasting, which was showcased as a lucrative spectacle in her family home in Wales, followed by her death in 1869. The Sarah Jacob case rehearses the familiar urge among Victorian English medical men to watch and detect, including a calculated drive to make breakthroughs in popular research areas of hysteria and simulation within the domain of female maladies. It also embodies a particular historical moment of London metropolitan expertise's curiosity towards 'Welsh culture'. Yet the article explains how the case reveals the need for medical men to turn away from the fasting girl's bedside and, in turn, to outsource the act of watching to nurses. Shifting the emphasis from the girl to the watch itself, I argue that the function of nurses in the case has been unjustifiably ignored. Their role as mediators between the different worlds that the case brings into conflict sheds further light on the 'clinical gaze' and more specifically on the hierarchies of professional observations of bodies that defy rational explanations.</p>","PeriodicalId":46435,"journal":{"name":"Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":"286-295"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143400239","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Reimagining the 'Lost' narratives of advanced dementia through literature and critical fabulation.","authors":"Frederik Schou-Juul, Ieva Stončikaitė, Katharina Fürholzer, Kate Irving","doi":"10.1136/medhum-2025-013249","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2025-013249","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The progression of dementia significantly affects the abilities to communicate needs or experiences, often rendering the inner lives or narratives inaccessible to others. This increases the risk of narratives becoming 'lost' and people living with dementia becoming subject to narrative dispossession. However, even as communicative clarity diminishes, meaningful expressions persist, necessitating empathic and creative approaches to engaging with the narratives of people living with dementia.This paper outlines how the narrative agency of people living with dementia potentially diminishes as the condition progresses, making it increasingly challenging to access their personal narratives. It also explores a range of strategies for sustaining narrative expression, with particular emphasis on empathic narrative engagement-including the use of non-verbal communication, embodied interactions and interpretive practices.Emphasising the importance of engaging with the narratives of advanced dementia, the discussion frames narration as both an act of care and an ethical response to narrative silence. It advocates for imaginative engagement and highlights literature and storytelling as vital tools for understanding dementia. Autobiographical or fictional narratives by or about people with dementia offer profound insights into their experiences, fostering empathy and challenging reductive stereotypes. However, as people living with dementia approach the limits of their own narrative capacity, more speculative approaches become essential in reimagining their narratives to promote their narrative agency.To address this challenge, the paper introduces the concept of critical fabulation-a speculative yet empathic method for reimagining the narratives of advanced dementia-and argues for approaches that reconstruct lost or inaccessible narratives, bridging gaps where direct verbal communication is no longer possible.</p>","PeriodicalId":46435,"journal":{"name":"Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144129110","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Comparison of drama and standardised patient method to develop humanistic approach in breaking bad news training.","authors":"Selçuk Akturan, Yasemin Türk, Yasemin Güner, Ayşenur Duman Dilbaz","doi":"10.1136/medhum-2025-013222","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2025-013222","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Medicine is inherently a humanistic profession. However, recent studies have emphasised the need for medical students to develop humane attitudes and behaviours. Breaking bad news is also one topic where a humanistic approach needs to be developed. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects and differences between drama and the standardised patient (SP) method in objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) on fostering a humanistic approach in breaking bad news. This is a comparative case study, a qualitative research method, encompassing content analyses of observer notes and transcripts of audio recordings from debriefing sessions. The study includes fifth-year medical students from Karadeniz Technical University Faculty of Medicine, with 20 volunteer students participating as the sample. The listed students, those with odd numbers, were assigned to the SP-based OSCE group, while those with even numbers were assigned to the drama-based OSCE group. Data was analysed using Creswell's content analysis approach. A total of 20 students participated in the study, with half evaluated through SP-based OSCEs and the other half through drama-based OSCEs. A comparative analysis of drama-based and SP-based OSCE debriefings revealed unique strengths and challenges. Drama-based OSCEs fostered empathy, emotional engagement and reflective practice, aiding students in managing emotions. SP-based OSCEs enhanced structured communication but sometimes led to emotional desensitisation and performative empathy. Overall, the drama method proved to be a more humanistic approach effective in nurturing natural empathy and supportive communication, particularly in breaking bad news. This study highlights the strengths of drama-based OSCEs in fostering empathy and emotional engagement while maintaining structured communication frameworks. By directly comparing drama and SP methods, our findings underscore the potential of drama-based approaches to enhance humanistic medical education and patient communication. Integrating the complementary strengths of both methods into medical training can better prepare students for compassionate, effective patient interactions, addressing both emotional and technical aspects of clinical care.</p>","PeriodicalId":46435,"journal":{"name":"Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144112183","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ending nuclear weapons, before they end us.","authors":"Chris Zielinski","doi":"10.1136/medhum-2025-013368","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2025-013368","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46435,"journal":{"name":"Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144081312","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Pandemics and the gothic, then and now: a hum in the background.","authors":"Julia M Wright","doi":"10.1136/medhum-2024-013193","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2024-013193","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>While the assertion, 'no one really wants to talk about COVID anymore', has become a common refrain, cultural evidence suggests otherwise. Rather, cultural materials indicate not only a sustained interest in epidemic and pandemic experiences in the past but also continuing interest in our own pandemic era. However, this interest is often registered through gestures and brief mentions rather than explicit and sustained plague narratives. This paper considers these trends, especially in Gothic works, a literary tradition rooted in hyperbolic representations of threats that also represents disease on frank terms consistent with current medical knowledge. Pandemics appear in Gothic writing two centuries ago through brief references that suggest the daily experience of danger.Pandemic-era television is following the same strategies. Like 'fevers' and 'plagues' in the early 1800s, COVID-19 can be raised briefly and often indirectly. There is also attention to other aspects of the pandemic, including isolation and misinformation. In the popular Gothic series, <i>Interview with the Vampire</i> (2022-), 'plague' and misinformation are captured on terms drawn from earlier Gothic writing and intertwined to reflect on the misinformation of the COVID-19 era.</p>","PeriodicalId":46435,"journal":{"name":"Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144081313","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}