Sam:
This NYT Magazine article talked about narrative medicine, a program launched at Columbia's med school to teach students the power of listening for narrative in their patients symptoms. Not only is it fascinating and encouraging that this program exists, but I really enjoyed hearing Rita Charon's explanation of the growing field of narrative medicine. This links directly to the reading we did on pathography and all of the discussions we've had on the emotional role of doctors. What I like about the narrative medicine concept is that it takes what we've been saying about doctors and emotional literacy and putting it on a plane that can be taught and enforced with regulation as a medical practice. This holistic interpretation of a patient's symptoms is honestly half the battle when it comes to doctors being more sensitive to their patients. Not only does teaching narrative medicine coach doctors in what it's like to be a patient again, but I think it helps them think more analytically about what is happening to the human in front of them. I can definitely remember times where I just wanted a doctor to listen to my story or illness as a whole and not prod me for symptoms and out-of-context experiences. I also think this is a valuable skill for med students as it seems like they're pretty stressed about learning everything else to become a doctor, and I think training people too narrowly in one discipline is often harmful to the overall goal. In an environment that's defined by scientific method I think it would be refreshing to look at healing people from a more holistic standpoint that could make you a truly helpful doctor.
I read the other articles about brain injury and really enjoyed them as well. I'm not sure how Sam will relate the two but I look forward to hearing what she has to say in class.
Ivy:
The article on hiding death from ourselves is something I've been trying to figure out for myself for a long time. I had a lot of family members die during my childhood and early adolescence and my parents frequently hid me from seeing those family members once they were in the hospital. This combined with the distancing practices of modern funerals I really believe that we have made the grieving process harder for ourselves in America. I know that I feel vastly disconnected from both of my grandfathers' deaths and I think being more present and aware of their actual dying process might have helped me process them better. I think there's value in shielding children from some of the harsh realities of death, but I also think it's important for them to see that dying is just a part of life. This article does a great job of summarizing how Americans are very quietly afraid of confronting death directly.
Kayleigh:
Kayleigh definitely has an interesting topic to work with, as the unconscious is something pretty spooky we haven't talked about a lot in class. I've always been a fan of interpreting my own dreams, and I think I can usually decipher some internal decisions or shifts I'm going through by analyzing them. I think the question is if this part of our being, the unconscious, is so powerful and knowing, how to we access and utilize it? Should people be paying more attention to their dreams? Are there other ways we can look into the unconscious part of our minds and extract useful information about ourselves? Even further, is there a way to develop and cultivate the unconscious mind? Could writing be a way that we interact with the unconscious somehow? Does writing to heal tap into our unconscious when we're not looking?
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