How the humanities heal: a doctor’s perspective. A physician recalls not only her own past, but also the history of health care that involves the greater story about the human condition. From the editorial: 

Medical humanities began as a study of literature and medicine, as an inquiry not only into the many ways medicine and the human condition are represented in literature, but also to investigate the parallels between the close reading of texts and the data interpretation and diagnostics of medicine. Furthermore, scholars began using literary theory to situate illness and health care in the context of society and history….

The arts, humanities and social sciences teach us both to look outside of ourselves and to look within: to explore, examine and record what it means to be human. What do health, illness, suffering and healing mean? What is caring? What is the experience of exhaustion, loss and grief?

h/t Rob Townshend