This writing exercise asks you to consider the significance of Medical Humanistic inquiry in the practice and development of medical treatments. In introducing you to the field Medical Humanities, we have discussed how Medical Humanities research and practices destabilizes the scientific determinism that perceivably stands at the center of medical diagnosis and treatment. (800–1000 words)
Follow these steps (and you may find yourself repeating some/changing the order) in the construction of your argument.
- Read through this assignment.
- Revisit the readings for relevant quotations. Within your analysis, provide one quotation from each week with complete citations that you will then incorporate into your discussion steps 4 and 5 below.
- Examine three numerical “facts” and cite them provided within the readings from each of week’s 5–7. Discuss briefly what each is doing in the narratives. Week 5 readings Kleinman, Arthur. “Chronic Pain: The Frustrations of Desire Links to an external site. (Chapter 5). From Illness Narratives: Suffering, healing, and the Human Condition. New York: Basic books, 1988. 88–99. AND Charon, Rita. “Narrative and Medicine.”The New England Journal of Medicine. 350.9 (February 26, 2004). Week 6 Readings Read: From Defoe, Daniel. A Journal of the Plague Yea Links to an external site.. (London, 1722). Courtesy of the HathiTrust. Title page and pages 3–22 . Week 7 Readings Read: Moran-Thomas, Amy. “What is communicable? Unaccounted injuries and “catching” diabetes in an illegible epidemic.” Cultural Anthropology 34.4(201471-502Links to an external site.
- Include a discussion how Narrative Medicine, the History of Medicine, and Medical Anthropology provide understanding into the relationship between Society and Illness that goes beyond this numerical data with the relevant quotations from #2.
- Include a discussion of your interview (CTE patient interview) in which you imagine a couple of numerical facts that may be relevant to discover in scientific research, but consider how the interview provided insights that could only be found within it. What do we gain from the individual?
- Write an intro that discusses the role of numerical data in medical practice and reasons for going beyond this data. This paragraph should conclude (or at the very least include) a thesis that defines the Medical Humanities and its role in disrupting scientific determinism.
- Write a conclusion that broadens the points explored into how this understanding applies to other aspects disease and treatment.
- Revise into a cohesive argument of 800–1000 words that addresses the assignment.
Again, this analysis must incorporate three quotations from the reading (one from each week 5–7) beyond the numerical data asked for in Step 3. This is a necessity it comes from these sources
These quotations must be cited with page numbers when provided. Note in particular that Defoe’s Journal is not an electronic resource but rather a facsimile of a print text; page numbers are especially required for it.
