Epistemological reflections on the art of medicine and narrative medicine

Perspect Biol Med. 2008 Summer;51(3):406-17. doi: 10.1353/pbm.0.0038.

Abstract

This article challenges the widespread view that there is both a science and an art of medicine. Through examination of recent work in medical humanities --Jodi Halpern's From Detached Concern to Empathy (2001), Kathryn Montgomery's How Doctors Think (2006), and Rita Charon's Narrative Medicine (2006)--I argue that while a variety of epistemic techniques are important in medicine, it is not helpful to dichotomize them as "science" versus "art." I assess the epistemic strengths and weaknesses of narrative medicine, a recent exemplar of humanistic medicine.

MeSH terms

  • Empathy
  • Ethics, Medical
  • Humanism*
  • Humans
  • Knowledge*
  • Medicine*
  • Narration*
  • Philosophy, Medical
  • Physician's Role
  • Physician-Patient Relations / ethics
  • Science / ethics