We are posting two excerpts for discussion on Dec. 4, both from non-fiction sources.
Excerpt from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010)
A description of Rebecca Skloot’s book can be found here
Excerpt from My Own County (1994)
A description of Abraham Verghese’s memoir can be found here
See you all Tuesday!
We’d like to discuss the following texts. As always, read what you can before the workshop, and we’ll make excerpts available during the workshop as well:
One short story:
Silver Water, by Amy Bloom
An essay:
The Importance of Empathy in Medical Practice and Some of its Difficulties by Irene Switankowsky
And a NYT editorial:
The Limits of Empathy, by David Brooks
Reading the last, especially, we were reminded that such complaints about the limits of empathy have been around since the late eighteenth century, at least. Witness, for instance, this excerpt from Hannah More’s poem, Sensibility (1782):
<As words are but th’ external marks to tell
The fair ideas in the mind that dwell
And only are of things the outward sign,
And not the things themselves they but define;
So exclamations, tender tones, fond tears,
And all the graceful drap’ry FEELING wears;
These are her garb, not her, they but express
Her form, her semblance, her appropriate dress;
And these fair marks, reluctant I relate,
These lovely symbols may be counterfeit.
There are, who fill with brilliant plaints the page,
If a poor linnet meet the gunner’s rage;
There are, who for a dying fawn deplore,
As if friend, parent, country, were no more;
Who boast, quick rapture trembling in their eye,
If from the spider’s snare they snatch a fly;
There are, whose well-sung plaints each breast inflame,
And break all hearts–but his from whom they came.
He, scorning life’s low duties to attend,
Writes odes on friendship, while he cheats his friend;
Of gaols and punishments he grieves to hear,
And pensions prison’d virtue with a tear;
While unpaid bills his creditor presents,
And ruin’d innocence his crime laments.
We look forward to seeing everyone on the 13th!
Readings:
We will be discussing Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder.
And Curiosity, an article about medical training we didn’t get to last time.
And a poem by Galway Kinnell, “Parkinson’s Disease”
Also, a short piece Janet found about humility in medicine, by a Palliative Care physician, that speaks to some of the issues we discussed last time:
As before, no advance reading is required to participate in the workshop. We will have short passages (and perhaps movie clips) that we can read (or watch) together.
If you have time to read a longer work, we’re suggesting the short science fiction novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (it’s the novel on which the movie Blade Runner is based). It describes a world in which being “human” is determined by a test that measures your empathetic responses. at Barnes & Noble.
Here is a pdf of a chapter from the novel describing an empathy test: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep excerpt
Also, we’re linking a few articles on measuring and encouraging empathy in physicians:
Physician Empathy: Definition, Components, Measurement, and Relationship to Gender and Specialty
Humanism at Heart: Preserving Empathy in Third Year Medical Students
A short story by Richard Seltzer, MD, Brute
And an empathy test from Blade Runner
Hope to see you all Tues., 10/9, 5-7 pm!
This post is to link people to resources in the field. Please feel free to add events, sites or texts you think people would find interesting in comments.
Here are a couple of events of interest coming up in the next few months:
Wed., Sept. 19, 4:30-6:30, Perkins 217: Ralph James Savarese, "What Some Autistics Can Teach Us about Poetry: A Neurocosmopolitan Approachâ
Nov. 2-3 (UNC): The Imaginary Invalid: Health, Illness, and Narrative
It was wonderful to meet so many of you on Tuesday! Since we didn’t have much time for everyone to introduce themselves, or talk about the work they’ve done in this and related fields, we wanted to open up a post for people to say more about their interests, and perhaps link to their own websites, projects or publications.
So please share anything you’d like along those lines in comments.
We have also set up a listserve for the group. If we haven’t already subscribed you, please let us know in comments or via email and we will do so.
thanks!
Doris and Charlotte
Here are three excerpts that we hope to discuss as a group on Tues. Sept. 11.
Karl Marlantes, from What It Is Like to Go to War (pp. 26-34)
Workshop I meets 5-7 Tuesday Sept 11 in Social Sciences 107.
Light dinner provided.
Co-conveners: Charlotte Sussman (English) and Dr. Doris Iarovici (CAPS)
Learning to Listen: Empathy in Literature and Medicine
What is empathy? A precious human quality? A necessary component of healing? A teachable skill? Can reading great stories or poems help medical and pre-med students develop it?
These workshops will explore how empathy is valued, measured and employed by literature and medicine and what these two disciplines might learn from each other.
Introductory workshop September 11th, 5-7 PM, Soc Sci 107
Open to all: undergraduate and medical or other grad students, and interested faculty.
Five Tuesdays, 5-7 PM, Social Sciences 107: Sept. 11, October 9, October 23, November 13, December 4.
Light Dinner, drinks and dessert provided.
For more information,
or email learningtolisten@duke.edu.
Co-Conveners: Charlotte Sussman (English) and Dr. Doris Iarovici (CAPS)
Sponsored by the Duke Humanities Writ Large Initiative
This blog supports a series of workshops at Duke University in the Fall 2012 on “Learning to Listen: Empathy in Literature and Medicine.”
More information about the project can be found here: Learning to Listen
The first workshop will be held Tuesday, September 11, 5-7 in Social Sciences 107.
More information will follow shortly.