RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Literature and medicine.
JF Journal of Medical Ethics
JO J Med Ethics
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Institute of Medical Ethics
SP 93
OP 98
DO 10.1136/jme.17.2.93
VO 17
IS 2
A1 R S Downie
YR 1991
UL http://jme.bmj.com/content/17/2/93.abstract
AB There are various ways in which medicine and literature interact, but this paper concentrates on the contribution which literature can make to 'whole person understanding'. Scientific understanding is concerned with seeing events and actions in terms of patterns or similarities. But 'whole person understanding' is concerned with uniqueness or with what it is for a given person to have an illness. Literature can in various ways develop this kind of understanding.