Medical Humanities An Introduction [Hardcover]

This textbook uses concepts and methods of the humanities to enhance understanding of medicine and health care.This textbook helps students and health professionals develop critical-thinking skills as well as compassion by using the many concepts and methods of the humanities. Readers are invited to consider existential issues relating to topics such as the experience of disease, care of the dying, health policy, religion and health, and medical technology.This textbook helps students and health professionals develop critical-thinking skills as well as compassion by using the many concepts and methods of the humanities. Readers are invited to consider existential issues relating to topics such as the experience of disease, care of the dying, health policy, religion and health, and medical technology.This textbook brings the humanities to students in order to evoke the humanity of students. It helps to form individuals who take charge of their own minds, who are free from narrow and unreflective forms of thought, and who act compassionately in their public and professional worlds. Using concepts and methods of the humanities, the book addresses undergraduate and premed students, medical students, and students in other health professions, as well as physicians and other healthcare practitioners. It encourages them to consider the ethical and existential issues related to the experience of disease, care of the dying, health policy, religion and health, and medical technology. Case studies, images, questions for discussion, and role-playing exercises help readers to engage in the practical, interpretive, and analytical aspects of the material, developing skills for critical thinking as well as compassionate care.Part I. History and Medicine: 1. The doctor-patient relationship Thomas Cole and Benjamin Saxton; 2. Constructing disease Thomas Cole and Benjamin Saxton; 3. Educating doctors Thomas Cole and Benjamin Saxton; 4. Technology and medicine Thomas Cole and Benjamin Sl3O