Narrative Medicine is founded on the idea that stories matter in the clinical encounter. Narrative Medicine uses tools from other disciplines (literary studies, creative writing, philosophy, anthropology, and sociology) as a means of strengthening and reshaping the ways institutions and individuals understand the relationship between clinical medicine, public health, and social justice.
“As patients tell of themselves in all the ways they can— with words, gestures, silences, facial expressions, biopsies of their lives– and hope to be heard, we do our best to receive all of these narratives, honoring them not only for their biological content but also for the news they give of the person in whom this illness dwells. Like all narrating situations, these instances of storytelling unite the teller and the listener in a shared world either recalled or imagined.”
Rita Charon, “Narrative Medicine as Witness for the Self-Telling Body” (2009)
Our world is in crisis. COVID-19 is a relatively new plague. Systemic racism is not. Both diseases are reshaping the national and international discourse on what it means to be healthy and safe in society. Recently, David Skorton, MD, President and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) highlighted the moral responsibility of healers and educators, particularly in medical schools and teaching hospitals, to fight against social injustice, inequality, and racism. (See David Skorton’s full Statement here.)
The Keck School of Medicine’s Master of Science in Narrative Medicine seeks to enhance the skills needed to do this kind of work, to bear witness, to absorb, to make sense of, and act upon the stories, the traumas of others at this moment in history. Our students and faculty stand ready to co-create the kind of environments that will contribute to the ongoing work of healing.
Click here for more about the field of Narrative Medicine.