The Importance of Humanities in a Technical Education
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The document emphasizes the significance of humanities in medical education, arguing that it fosters empathy, ethical reasoning, and reflective practices among healthcare professionals. It critiques the dehumanization in modern medicine due to technological focus and calls for a balance between scientific advancement and humanistic values. The author advocates for integrating humanities into technical education to enhance communication skills, critical thinking, and an appreciation for human diversity.
The Importance of Humanities in a Technical Education
- 1. The Importance of Humanities in a Technical Education Jonathan McFarland Head of Academic Writing Sechenov Medical University 25th November 2016
- 2. “Medicine is my lawful wife and literature my mistress; when I get tired of one; I spend the night with the other”
- 3. Index Introduction The Importance of the Humanities in Medicine The Importance of the Humanities in other disciplines Future developments Take Home Message
- 4. What is “Humanities”? The word “Humanities” - Latin word humanitas. Originally, humanitas – meant human feeling, Today - sympathy, empathy, compassion, pity, concern or caring. In the 14th Century, Petrarch shaped it into the ideal of forming a person who combines human feeling with liberal learning and action
- 6. Before the late 19th century, medical students were trained in the classical tradition of humanistic education. Required to read Hippocrates and Galen – “History – knowledge of and identification with Medicine’s vision of its past – was a central dimension of their professional identity and authority”*
- 7. “Of the physician’s character, the chief quality is humanity, the sensibility of heart which makes us feel for the distress of our fellow-creatures” ( John Gregory) Sir Luke Fildes “The Doctor”(1891)
- 8. “Medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability WILLIAM OSLER HARVEY CUSHING
- 10. DEHUMANIZATION OF MEDICINE TECHNOLOGY PROFITS ABOVE PATIENTS BIOMEDICAL REDUCTIONISM FOCUS ON DISEASE AND NOT ILLNESS TOO LITTLE TIME TO SEE PATIENTS
- 11. Case study – Dr Hsi “ I was 43 years old, a successful physician, married to a wonderful woman and blessed with two fine sons – all of it assaulted by a rare heart disease of such catastrophic power that it did more than threaten my life. It nearly destroyed my family” He believes that the biggest mistake that the Drs made were that they did NOT ask him the really important questions
- 12. What were they? What has the disease done to your life? What has it done to your family ? What has it done to your work? What has it done to your spirit? EXISTENTIAL QUESTIONS – QUESTIONS ABOUT THE MEANING OF LIFE AND DEATH – ARE ESSENTIAL TO MEDICINE
- 13. WHY NOW?
- 15. Most scientific enquiry is based on these six monosyllables, and the orderly presentation of a scientific paper is helped by trying to answer the six questions they pose. (Richard Asher)
- 16. EDMUND PELLEGRINO A PHYSICIAN REFORMER MADE A LIST OF SINS ( IN MEDICINE) INCLUDING – OVERSPECIALIZATION TECHNICAL OVERPROFESSIONALIZATION INSENSITIVITY TOO MUCH SCIENCE OVERMEDICALISATION OF EVERYDAY LIFE DEFICIENCIES IN VERBAL AND NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION
- 17. 3 ESSENTIAL GOALS FOR MEDICAL HUMANITIES HUMANITIES WOULD HELP TO CLARIFY THE ETHICAL ISSUES AND VALUES AT STAKE IN CLINICAL DECISIONS HUMANITIES WOULD INCULCATE HABITS OF CRITICAL SELF-EXAMINATION HUMANITIES WOULD “ CONFER THOSE ATTITUDES WHICH DISTINGUUSH THE EDUCATED FROM THE MERELY TRAINED (PROFESSIONAL)”
- 18. “ MEDICAL HUMANISM IS REALLY A PLEA TO LOOK MORE CLOSELY AT WHAT MEDICINE SHOULD BE, AND INCREASINGLY SEEMS NOT TO BE. CAN WE BALANCE THE PROMISES OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY AGAINST THE THREATS IT POSES TO PERSONS AND SOCIETIES ?”
- 21. Paul Kalinithi
- 22. WHY NOW?
- 24. CP SNOW First Published in 1956 Drew the lines between the Arts and Science Science was “ expansive, not restrictive, confident at the roots….” and “…..certain that history is on its side…..”
- 25. What can the Humanities add to a Technical Education ? Help students develop their own values Help education move from technical training to a genuine university education Help students appreciate the importance of history Help students become more critical and reflective Help students develop communication skills Help students to devlop skills to interpret their own experiences and those of others Help students appreciate human diversity
- 26. The Doctor as a Humanist Project FIVE PARTICIPATING UNIVERSITIES – SECHENOV MEDICAL UNIVERSITY POMPEU FABRA UNIVERSITY ( BARCELONA ) QUEENS UNIVERSITY ( BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND ) MILAN UNIVERSITY TURGES MURES MEDICAL UNIVERSITY ( RUMANIA )
- 27. “THE DOCTOR AS A HUMANIST” SYMPOSIUM – PALMA DE MALLORCA – 6-7 OCT 2017
- 28. Take Home Message “THE AIM OF EDUCATION IS THE KNOWLEDGE, NOT OF FACTS, BUT OF VALUES”