Rejecting medical humanism: medical humanities and the metaphysics of medicine.

Full Abstract

The call for a narrative medicine has been touted as the cure-all for an increasingly mechanical medicine. It has been claimed that the humanities might create more empathic, reflective, professional and trustworthy doctors. In other words, we can once again humanise medicine through the addition of humanities. In this essay, I explore how the humanities, particularly narrative medicine, appeals to the metaphysical commitments of the medical institution in order to find its justification, and in so doing, perpetuates a dualism of humanity that would have humanism as the counterpoint to the biopsychosociologisms of our day.

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Author information

Author/s: Bishop, Jeffrey P (JP);

Affiliation: Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society, Vanderbilt University, 319 Oxford House, Nashville, TN 37232-4350, USA. Jeffrey.bishop@vanderbilt.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: The Journal of medical humanities (J Med Humanit), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Mar; vol 29 (issue 1) : pp 15-25

Dates: Created 2008/01/21; Completed 2008/03/31;

PMID: 18058003, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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