Introduction: A Symposium in Seven Parts

摘要

This paper is the first of an eight-part symposium that describes "the role of narrative in the everyday practice of medicine." This subtitle, which prefaces each of the subsequent parts of the symposium, is adapted from the title of a work that the authors wrote and produced in 2005, Medicine and Humanistic Understanding: The Significance of Narrative in Medical Practices, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press. We say "produced," because this work is an interactive DVD-Rom, consisting of more than 700 screens and 3 hours of video interviews, simulations, and montages. Much of the contents of the symposium is based upon and elaborates the work of Medicine and Humanistic Understanding, and interested readers will find there in-depth discussions of issues examined in the symposium. The authors are all members of the faculty at the University of Oklahoma.