Course Descriptions

 

Core Courses

Topics in Narrative Medicine

Practicum/Independent Study

 

NMED K4020.  Narrative Medicine: Giving and Receiving Accounts of Self.  4 pts.

Description

What are the clinical applications of literary knowledge? How are illnesses plotted represented? Does suffering belong to a genre? Can a medical history be co-narrated in order to redistribute ownership and authority? What does Geoffrey Hartman mean by the term "story cure?" The objectives of this course include advancing the instrumental value of literary practice in medical practice. At the center of this project are medical encounters in which one person gives an account of himself or herself and another person is expected to receive it. In examining the complexities of this exchange, to help clinicians to fulfill their "receiving" duties more effectively, we turn to narrative theory, performance theory, autobiographical theory, psychoanalytic theory, and the nexus of narrative/identity. Readings include works by, Henry James, W. G. Sebald, Kazuo Ishiguro, Judith Butler, Adriana Cavarero, Hannah Arendt, Arthur Frank, as well as illness narratives, trauma scholarship, and witnessing literature. The clinical component of the seminar take place in Dr. Charon's internal medicine practice at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, where graduate students will have the opportunity to function as witness, observing and representing what occurs in the office or on rounds as a way to help both patient and doctor to take full measure of what they do together.

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NMED K4025.  Illness Narratives: Embodiment, Community, Activism.  4 pts.

Description

Recent decades have witnessed the emergence of illness and disability autobiographies as a unique field of literary and sociological study. Autobiographies written by individuals experiencing illness bring to the fore issues of subjectivity and embodiment, while simultaneously reflecting larger social, political, and cultural realities. This course the field of illness and disability autobiography as well as prominent scholarship in this field. The primary goal of the course is to examine issues of embodiment and voice in illness narratives. The course is to examine the relationship between illness and disability narratives and their familial, social, and institutional contexts. Finally, this course addresses the issue of “personal to political” narratives—illness and disability narratives as they relate to broader advocacy and activism. As narrative is both analytical and practical, this course combines theoretical articles with a variety of illness autobiographies and illness narratives. The course incorporates short weekly narratives based on a personal illness experience of a student’s own or that of a close family member or friend.

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NMED K4100.  The Self and Other in the Clinical Encounter.  4 pts.

Description

Who is the Other? What is the nature of the relationship between oneself and the Other—the intersubjective relationship? Is this relationship immediate or mediated? If mediated, by what? Can I ever truly know the Other? If so, how? What does “knowing” the Other mean? What is the role of language in the intersubjective relationship? This class explores “intersubjectivity” and the “Other” as terms central to the study of Narrative Medicine. Students examine various ways of conceptualizing these terms, from Cartesianism, Hegelianism, Phenomenology, Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and other traditions. Through this exploration of intersubjectivity and Otherness, the class challenges our assumptions about the nature of the clinical encounter, with a view toward better understanding the ways that Narrative Medicine might foster authentic intersubjective, empathetic relationships between clinicians and patients.

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NMED K4110.  Close Reading and Reflective Writing in the Clinical Context I (Seminar).  4 pts.

Description

The objectives of this course are to build close reading skills and to develop approaches to reflective writing in the clinical setting. Narrative training for interdisciplinary groups of health care professionals is a promising method for improving both the clinical care provided and the lived experiences of the professionals. Attention to how stories are told, where a story begins and ends, who’s included in the story, whether or not it runs along a familiar plot line, how the teller’s affect changes in the course of the telling are habits of mind for some people and acquired skills for others. A fundamental premise of this course is that literary interpretation is an ethical act that stresses the importance of the interpreter in the process of interpretation. It calls for a suspension, or recognition, of judgment so that observation can take place. From the classic “hermeneutic circle” (from part to whole) to Arthur Frank’s approach of “reading with” stories to Michael White’s theories of narrative-based therapy, the class examines different ways to effectively combine close reading with timed reflective writing exercises. As many students will be returning to medical institutions as narrative medicine administrators or facilitators, this course focuses on developing methods for teaching and facilitating discussion and on developing and responding to writing exercises with health care professionals. Literary texts offer a broad range of genres, voices, narrative strategies, and techniques, including short stories, prose poems, memoirs, novels, and a few films.

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NMED K4111.  Close Reading and Reflective Writing in the Clinical Context II (Practicum).  4 pts.

Description

Concurrently with the Close Reading and Reflective Writing in the Clinical Context I (seminar), students will be engaged in its partner activity, the “Practicum/Internship.” Each student enrolled in this Seminar is assigned to a teaching post in a clinically inflected writing workshop. The aim of the practicum is to give each student supervised responsibility for leading close reading discussions and coaching writing in the clinical setting. Each practicum site will be supervised by a faculty member in Narrative Medicine.

The distinct goal of the practicum is to provide each student with field experience in setting up and directing a close reading and reflective writing workshop. It is expected that the students will use the skills developing in the seminar in their student-teaching. Opportunities will be provided at the meetings of the seminar and in the time slot following the seminar to debrief on and share experiences about the practicum experience. Flexible arrangements for these practicum meetings will be considered for particular students with permission of the faculty. 

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NMED K4030.  Witnessing Our Words: A Narrative Medicine Writing Seminar in Poetry and Prose.  4 pts.

Description

Narrative Medicine is an emerging interdisciplinary field at the interces of arts, science, social science and humanities. In both its scholarly applications and its clinical training, narrative medicine honors the written word – its ambiguity and nuance, its power and polish.

This unique multi-genre, multi-author writing seminar will focus on the craft of both poetry and prose. Through four modules of three class sessions each, recognized and established authors in poetry, fiction, memoir, and nonfiction writing will guide the class participants through both writing exercises and discussions of the craft of each genre. In addition, the course will be coordinated by one of the narrative medicine core faculty, who will help tie the four disparate modules together, and create time for workshopping of participant writing. The course will end with an open session for student readings from their work.

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NMED K4200.  Narrative Genetics: Representations of Inheritance, Normativity and Personhood in Cinema.  4 pts.

Description

What makes a person? Who defines “normality”? Who should be allowed to reproduce and how? Cinema has long been the site for cultural anxieties, scientific fantasies, and ethical debates about the nature of personhood. From Frankenstein-inspired creation myths to Nazi-era propaganda of perfect people to anxieties about parental responsibility for imperfect babies, the early and mid-twentieth century produced a range of films that reflect social perceptions of eugenics. With the popular fascination in the Human Genome Project, films of the late twentieth century revisit these earlier themes with a focus on cloning, genetic enhancement, and anxieties about free will and genetic determinism. In the last two decades, social concerns about genomics, and genomic inspired films, have been heavily influenced by the popularization of artificial reproductive technologies, and the possibilities of prenatal genetic testing and implantation. This course examines constructions of inheritance, normalcy, and personhood in cinema for the purpose of exploring the new field of “narrative genetics.” Narrative movements in medicine and health care utilize narratological theories and methodologies to help clinicians interact in more nuanced, meaningful, and effective ways with patient stories. Narrative genetics applies these ideas to the science of genetics and genetics-related fields in health care, including human genetics or genetic counseling.

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NMED K4220.  Narrative, Health, and Social Justice.  4 pts.

Description

Narrative medicine, its practice and scholarship, is necessarily concerned with issues of trauma, body, memory, voice, and inter-subjectivity. However, to grapple with these issues, we must locate them in their social, cultural, political, and historical contexts. Narrative understanding helps unpack the complex power relations between North and South, state and worker, disabled body and able body, bread-earner and child-bearer, as well as self and the other (or, even, selves and others). If disease, violence, terror, war, poverty, and oppression manifest themselves narratively, then resistance, justice, healing, activism, and collectivity can equally be products of a narrative-based approach to ourselves and the world. This course explores the connections between narrative, health, and social justice. In doing so, it broadens the mandate of narrative medicine, challenging each of us to bring a critical, self-reflective eye to our scholarship, teaching, practice, and organizing. How are the stories we tell, and are told, manifestations of social injustice? How can we transform such stories into narratives of justice, health, and change?

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NMED K4250.  Co-constructing Narratives.  4 pts.

Description

This course is an in-depth exploration of the way in which narratives are co-constructed, negotiated, and performed. The reciprocal relationship between storytelling and listening is an additional focus of the course. Students apply current and previous experience to the presentation of a co-constructed narrative. The course is structured in three interrelated phases: The first phase addresses theoretical foundations and philosophical issues of narrative approaches, dialogue, and negotiation; the second phase focuses on practical components, including creating safe spaces for storytelling, uncovering the obstacles to listening, and elucidating the basic elements of storytelling; and the final phase includes the presentation and in-depth analyses of student co-constructed narratives. To facilitate the application of knowledge accrued about the co-construction of narratives, students examine and analyze a series of illustrative examples over the course of the semester, including documentary films, published articles, and live performances.

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NMED K4290.  Narratives of Death, Living & Caring at the End of Life.  4 pts.

Description

Death and dying, like birth and birthing, are medical events in modern society. Most of us end life as we began it—in the hospital, with “strangers at the bedside,” as David Rothman writes, and often as cyborgs imbedded with machinery that externalizes even as it embodies life itself. Is it indeed possible to be part of this medicalization process and yet understand and connect with dying and death from within the experience of the person? The intention of the course is to bring students to a deeper understanding of their own connection to death and dying, to a stronger connection to the experience of dying for dying people, and to a more caring sensitivity to those who care for others at the end of life. While we live we are the subject: our lives unfold in stories and are connected to others through narrative. By using narrative to better understand our own feelings toward death and dying, as well as connecting to the experience of others, we become better clinicians and more effective caregivers. The course explores the meaning of death and its cultural construction in western and non-western societies; the definitions of death and the place of the individual at the intersection of physiological, technological, legal, and philosophical interpretations; and the experience of death in the personal and in the public spheres. We use narratives by patients, families, caregivers, and clinicians in different media to explore these dimensions, as well as using secondary sources built on narrative and narrative analysis.

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NMED K4900.  Practicum/Independent Study Requirement Description.  4 pts.

Description

Each student completes a clinical practicum, a capstone project, or a thesis. The type of practicum or independent study, the placement, and the topic are subject to the approval of the program adviser in consultation with other faculty. On the basis of this decision, each student will be assigned a practicum/independent study adviser. Each student completes a practicum/independent study plan by the end of the first semester in the program.

All students are expected to choose a practicum or independent study based on their past experience and future professional or academic goals. Examples include: clinical placements; curriculum, program design, or program evaluation projects; masters theses; or publishable articles.

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