Graphic and Narrative Medicine: an Introduction
Narrative and graphic medicine is a multidisciplinary approach that emphasizes the power of storytelling in healthcare. It encourages individuals to take ownership of their stories, fostering personal healing and growth. By engaging with narratives, we deepen our understanding of various aspects of health sciences, including the clinician-patient relationship, reducing clinician burnout, and processing experiences as patients or caregivers.This approach offers a more holistic perspective on healthcare, going beyond diagnoses and symptoms to create a safe and supportive space for exploration and understanding. Through reading, writing, and discussion, we examine how narratives can transform clinical encounters, helping healthcare professionals find new meaning and insights in their practice.
The Power of Narrative in Medicine
Discussion Focus
Introduction to narrative medicine and its impact on healthcare. Explore how both written and visual stories shape medical practice and patient care.
Suggested Readings
The Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine by ISBN: 9780199360192Publication Date: 2016-11-04Narrative medicine is a fresh discipline of health care that helps patients and health professionals to tell and listen to the complex and unique stories of illness. The Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine expresses the collective experience and discoveries of the originators of the field. Arising at Columbia University in 2000 from roots in the humanities and patient-centered care, narrative medicine draws patients, doctors, nurses, therapists, and health activists together to re-imagine a health care based on trust and trustworthiness, humility, and mutual recognition.
- Article: Narrative Medicine: Attention, Representation, AffiliationBy Rita Charon
Published in Narrative. 13(3):261-270. 2005
Sick persons and those who care for them become obligatory story-tellers and story-listeners. Hippocrates knew this, Chekhov knew this, Freud knew this, and yet knowledge of the centrality of storytelling was obscured in medicine throughout much of the last century.
Graphic Medicine Resource
Graphic Medicine Manifesto by ISBN: 9780271066493Publication Date: 2015-05-15This inaugural volume in the Graphic Medicine series establishes the principles of graphic medicine and begins to map the field.
Empathy and the Patient Experience
Discussion Focus
Consider the role of empathy in patient care and how narrative medicine, through both prose and visuals, fosters deeper connections and understanding.
Suggested Readings
Being Mortal by Call Number: R726.8 .G39 2014ISBN: 9781250076229Publication Date: 2017-09-05Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming the dangers of childbirth, injury, and disease from harrowing to manageable. But when it comes to the inescapable realities of aging and death, what medicine can do often runs counter to what it should. Through eye-opening research and gripping stories of his own patients and family, Gawande reveals the suffering this dynamic has produced. Nursing homes, devoted above all to safe
Graphic Medicine Resource
Patient H. M. by ISBN: 9780812982527Publication Date: 2017-05-02[On Order] In 1953, a twenty-seven-year-old factory worker named Henry Molaison--who suffered from severe epilepsy--received a radical new version of the then-common lobotomy, targeting the most mysterious structures in the brain. The operation failed to eliminate Henry's seizures, but it did have an unintended effect: Henry was left profoundly amnesic, unable to create long-term memories. Over the next sixty years, Patient H.M., as Henry was known, became the most studied individual in the history of neuroscience, a human guinea pig who would teach us much of what we know about memory today.
Illness as a Story
Discussion Focus
Consider how patients use storytelling to make sense of their illness experiences. Discuss the effectiveness of conveying illness narratives through graphic formats.
Suggested Readings
The Wounded Storyteller by ISBN: 9780226004976Publication Date: 2013-08-28Since it was first published in 1995, The Wounded Storyteller has occupied a unique place in the body of work on illness. Both the collective portrait of a so-called "remission society" of those who suffer from some type of illness or disability and a cogent analysis of their stories within a larger framework of narrative theory, Arthur W. Frank's book has reached a large and diverse readership including the ill, medical professionals, and scholars of literary theory. Drawing on the work of authors such as Oliver Sacks, Anatole Broyard, Norman Cousins, and Audre Lorde, as well as from people he met during the years he spent among different illness groups, Frank recounts a stirring collection of illness stories, ranging from the well-known--Gilda Radner's battle with ovarian cancer--to the private testimonials of people with cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome, and disabilities. Reflecting on both his own life during the creation of the first edition and the conclusions of the book itself, Frank reminds us of the power of storytelling as way to understanding our own suffering.
Graphic Medicine Resources
Mom's Cancer by ISBN: 9780810971073Publication Date: 2009-01-01An honest, unflinching, and sometimes humorous look at the practical and emotional effect that serious illness can have on patients and their families, Mom's Cancer is a story of hope--uniquely told in words and illustrations.
Kimiko Does Cancer by ISBN: 1551528193Publication Date: 2020-10-06A graphic memoir that upends the traditional cancer narrative from a young woman's perspective, confronting issues such as dating while in menopause, navigating work and treatment, and talking to well-meaning friends, health care professionals, and other cancer survivors with viewpoints different from her own. Not one for pink ribbons or runs for the cure, Kimiko seeks connection within the cancer community while also critiquing the mainstream cancer experience.
Narratives of Chronic Illness
Discussion Focus
Exploring the long-term impact of chronic illnesses and how continuous narratives, both written and illustrated, aid in understanding and coping.
Suggested Readings
The Invisible Kingdom by ISBN: 9781594633799Publication Date: 2022-03-01Drawing on her own medical experience as well as fifteen years of interviews with doctors, patients, researchers, and public health experts, O'Rourke's incisive new work speaks to an urgent subject: the epidemic scale of autoimmune disease in America (even greater with the advent of 'Long Covid') and where we go from here. O'Rourke reveals crucial, subtle complexities about the American struggle with chronic illness and autoimmune conditions, and offers new reasons for hope, as well as a new framework for thinking about infectious disease and autoimmune response going forward.
Tuesdays with Morrie by ISBN: 9780307275639Publication Date: 2005-12-27Albom tells the story of his reconnection with his college professor and mentor, Morrie Schwartz, and their visits in the months prior to Morrie's death.
Graphic Medicine Resource
Epileptic by ISBN: 9782844140852Publication Date: 2002-12-01The most acclaimed European graphic novel of the last ten years, finally available in English, is author David B.'s story of his brother's battle with epilepsy - which turns into a penetrating and sometimes lacerating self-examination on the author's part, as he delves into his own complex emotions and his family's troubled history, as well as his own youthful fantasy life.
Cultural Humility through Narrative
Discussion Focus:
Understanding how cultural backgrounds influence health narratives and the importance of cultural sensitivity, as portrayed through diverse storytelling mediums.
Suggested Readings
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by ISBN: 9780374533403Publication Date: 2012-04-24Now with a new Afterword from the author Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down explores the clash between a small county hospital in California and a refugee family from Laos over the care of Lia Lee, a Hmong child diagnosed with severe epilepsy. Lia's parents and her doctors both wanted what was best for Lia, but the lack of understanding between them led to tragedy. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest, and the Salon Book Award, Anne Fadiman's compassionate account of this cultural impasse is literary journalism at its finest.
Graphic Medicine Resource
The Best We Could Do by ISBN: 9781419718786Publication Date: 2018-04-17Thi Bui's critically acclaimed and beautifully illustrated story of her family's journey from their war-torn home in Vietnam to their new lives in America. Exploring the anguish of immigration and the lasting effects that displacement has on a child and family, Bui documents the difficulties immigrants face as they build new lives for themselves. At the heart of Bui's story is a universal struggle: adjusting to life as a first-time mother. With haunting, poetic writing and breathtaking art, The Best We Could Do examines the strength of family, the importance of identity, and the meaning of home, providing inspiration to all who search for a better future while longing for a simpler past.
Trauma and Recovery Narratives
Discussion Focus
The role of narrative in processing and healing from trauma, and how graphic storytelling can vividly convey the complexities of mental health recovery.
Suggested Readings
The Body Keeps the Score by ISBN: 9780143127741Publication Date: 2015-09-08"Essential reading for anyone interested in understanding and treating traumatic stress and the scope of its impact on society." --Alexander McFarlane, Director of the Centre for Traumatic Stress Studies A pioneering researcher transforms our understanding of trauma and offers a bold new paradigm for healing.
Graphic Medicine Resource
Marbles by ISBN: 9781592407323Publication Date: 2012-11-06Cartoonist Ellen Forney explores the relationship between "crazy" and "creative" in this graphic memoir of her bipolar disorder, woven with stories of famous bipolar artists and writers. Shortly before her thirtieth birthday, Forney was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Flagrantly manic and terrified that medications would cause her to lose creativity, she began a years-long struggle to find mental stability while retaining her passions and creativity.
The Clinician's Story
Discussion Focus
Exploring the personal narratives of healthcare providers and how their experiences and vulnerabilities impact their practice, illustrated through both memoirs and comics.
Suggested Readings
When Breath Becomes Air by ISBN: 9780812988406Publication Date: 2016-01-12This inspiring, exquisitely observed memoir finds hope and beauty in the face of insurmountable odds as an idealistic young neurosurgeon attempts to answer the question, What makes a life worth living?
I Wasn't Strong Like This When I Started Out: True Stories of Becoming a Nurse by ISBN: 9781937163129Publication Date: 2013-04-09This collection of true narratives reflects the dynamism and diversity of nurses, who provide the first vital line of patient care. Here, nurses remember their first "sticks," first births, and first deaths, and reflect on what gets them though long, demanding shifts, and keeps them in the profession. The stories reveal many voices from nurses at different stages of their careers: One nurse-in-training longs to be trusted with more "important" procedures, while another questions her ability to care for nursing home residents. An efficient young emergency room nurse finds his life and career irrevocably changed by a car accident. What connects these stories is the passion and strength of the writers, who struggle against burnout and bureaucracy to serve their patients with skill, empathy, and strength.
Graphic Medicine Resource
The Bad Doctor by ISBN: 9780271067544Publication Date: 2015-03-15Meet Dr. Iwan James: cyclist, doctor, would-be lover, former heavy metal fan, and, above all, human being. Weighed down by his responsibilities--from diagnosing personality disorders to deciding who can hold a gun license--he doubts his ability to make decisions about the lives of others when he may need more than a little help himself. Cartoonist and doctor Ian Williams introduces us to Iwan's troubled life as all humanity, it seems, passes through his surgery doors.
Death, Dying, and End-of-Life Care
Discussion Focus
Discussing narratives that address mortality and the end-of-life experience, and how visual storytelling can bring nuance and accessibility to these profound topics.
Suggested Readings
Being with Dying by ISBN: 9781590307182Publication Date: 2009-11-17[On Order] A Buddhist teacher draws from her years of experience in caring for the dying to provide inspiring lessons on how to face death with courage and compassion. In this book, Halifax offers lessons from dying people and caregivers, as well as guided meditations to help readers contemplate death without fear, develop a commitment to helping others, and transform suffering and resistance into courage. Her teachings affirm that we can open and contact our inner strength-and that we can help others who are suffering to do the same.Being with Dyingis a source of wisdom for anyone who is facing their own death, caring for someone who is dying, or wishing to explore the transformative power of the dying process.
Graphic Medicine Resource
Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant? by ISBN: 9781608198061Publication Date: 2014-05-06In her first memoir, New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast brings her signature wit to the topic of aging parents. Spanning the last several years of their lives and told through four-color cartoons, family photos, and documents, and a narrative as rife with laughs as it is with tears, Chast's memoir is both comfort and comic relief for anyone experiencing the life-altering loss of elderly parents.
Ethical Topics in Medicine and Health Care
Discussion Focus
Examining complex ethical issues in healthcare and research, and how narratives help unpack and humanize these dilemmas through different formats
Suggested Readings
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by ISBN: 9781400052189Publication Date: 2011-03-08Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine: The first "immortal" human cells grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb's effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave. Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.
Mad World by ISBN: 9780745346717Publication Date: 2023-07-05Mental health affects us all, and yet it remains elusive as a concept. Does getting a diagnosis help or hinder it? How is mental well-being, which is often incredibly personal, driven by widespread societal suffering? Can it be a social construct and real at the same time? These are some of the big questions Micha Frazer-Carroll asks as she reveals mental health to be a political issue that needs deeper understanding beyond today's 'awareness raising' campaigns. Exploring the history of asylums and psychiatry; the relationship between disability and broader liberation movements; alternative models of care; the relationship between art and mental health; law and the decarceration of mental health, Mad World is a radical and hopeful antidote to pathologization, gatekeeping and the policing of imagination.
Graphic Medicine Resource
Bipolar Bear and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Health Insurance by ISBN: 9781637790359Publication Date: 2022-11-01Theodore is a bear with wild mood swings. When he is up, he carves epic poetry into tree trunks. When he is down, he paints sad faces on rocks and turtle shells. In search of prescription medications that will bring stability to his life, Theodore finds a job with health insurance benefits. He gets the meds, but when he can't pay the psychiatrist's bill, he becomes lost in the Labyrinth of Health Insurance Claims. This witty and colorful tale follows the comical exploits of Theodore, a lovable and relatable bear, as he copes with bipolar disorder, navigates the inequities of capitalist society, founds a commune, and becomes an activist, all the while accompanied by a memorable cast of characters--fat-cat insurance CEOs, a wrongfully convicted snake, raccoons with tommy guns, and an unemployed old dog who cannot learn new tricks. Entertaining, whimsical, and bitingly satirical, Bipolar Bear is a fable for grownups that manages the delicate balance of addressing society's ills while simultaneously presenting a hopeful vision for the world.
Mental Health and Narrative
Discussion Focus
Exploring mental health experiences and the impact of storytelling in understanding and destigmatizing mental illness, enhanced through expressive illustrations.
Suggested Readings
An Unquiet Mind by ISBN: 9780679763307Publication Date: 1997-01-14[On ORder] A deeply powerful memoir about bipolar illness that has both transformed and saved lives--with a new preface by the author. Dr. Jamison is one of the foremost authorities on manic-depressive (bipolar) illness; she has also experienced it firsthand. For even while she was pursuing her career in academic medicine, Jamison found herself succumbing to the same exhilarating highs and catastrophic depressions that afflicted many of her patients, as her disorder launched her into ruinous spending sprees, episodes of violence, and an attempted suicide. Here Jamison examines bipolar illness from the dual perspectives of the healer and the healed, revealing both its terrors and the cruel allure that at times prompted her to resist taking medication.
Graphic Medicine Resources
Lighter Than My Shadow by ISBN: 9780224090988Publication Date: 2013-10-03[On Order] A poignant, heart-lifting graphic memoir about anorexia, eating disorders and the journey to recovery Like most kids, Katie was a picky eater. She'd sit at the table in silent protest, hide uneaten toast in her bedroom, listen to parental threats that she'd have to eat it for breakfast. But in any life a set of circumstance can collide, and normal behaviour might soon shade into something sinister, something deadly. Lighter Than My Shadow is a hand-drawn story of struggle and recovery, a trip into the black heart of a taboo illness, an exposure of those who are so weak as to prey on the vulnerable, and an inspiration to anybody who believes in the human power to endure towards happiness.
And Now I Spill the Family Secrets by ISBN: 9780063007444Publication Date: 2021-04-20In the spirit of Alison Bechdel's Fun Home and Roz Chast's Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant, Margaret Kimball's AND NOW I SPILL THE FAMILY SECRETS begins in the aftermath of a tragedy. In 1988, when Kimball is only four years old, her mother attempts suicide on Mother's Day--and this becomes one of many things Kimball's family never speaks about. As she searches for answers nearly thirty years later, Kimball embarks on a thrilling visual journey into the secrets her family has kept for decades. Using old diary entries, hospital records, home videos, and other archives, Margaret pieces together a narrative map of her childhood--her mother's bipolar disorder, her grandmother's institutionalization, and her brother's increasing struggles--in an attempt to understand what no one likes to talk about: the fractures in her family. Both a coming-of-age story about family dysfunction and a reflection on mental health,
Everything Is an Emergency by ISBN: 9780062950079Publication Date: 2020-06-30New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice "A brilliant, honest, necessary book that exposes the intricacies of the human brain while showing us the way creativity and friendship can anchor us. This is a must-read for anyone who has ever wondered if they see the world a little differently." -Ada Limón A New Yorker cartoonist illustrates his lifelong struggle with OCD in cartoon vignettes frank and funny Jason Adam Katzenstein is just trying to live his life, but he keeps getting sidetracked by his over-active, anxious brain. Mundane events like shaking hands or sharing a drink snowball into absolute catastrophes. Jason has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, a mental illness that compels him to perform rituals in order to protect himself from dangers that don't really exist. He checks, washes, over-thinks, rinse, repeat. He does his best to hide his embarrassing compulsions, and sometimes this even works. He grows up, worries about his first kiss, falls in love with making cartoons, moves to New York City -- which is magical and gross, etc. All the while, half his energy goes into living his life, while the other half is devoted to the increasingly ridiculous rituals he's decided to maintain to keep himself from fully short-circuiting, Then, he fully short-circuits. At his absolute lowest, Jason finally decides to do the things he's always been told to do to get better: exposure therapy and medication. These are the things that have always freaked him out, and they continue to freak him out. Also, they help him recover.
Dear Scarlet by ISBN: 9781551527659Publication Date: 2019-05-07In this intimate and moving graphic memoir, Teresa Wong writes and illustrates the story of her struggle with postnatal depression in the form of a letter to her daughter Scarlet. Equal parts heartbreaking and funny, Dear Scarlet perfectly captures the quiet desperation of those suffering from PPD and the profound feelings of inadequacy and loss. Dear Scarlet is a poignant and deeply personal journey through the complexities of new motherhood, offering hope to those affected by PPD, as well as reassurance that they are not alone.
Patient-Centered Care
Discussion Focus
Discussing the principles of patient-centered care and how narratives empower patients and clinicians to collaborate effectively, with insights from real-world graphic accounts.
Suggested Readings
The Patient Will See You Now by ISBN: 9780465054749Publication Date: 2015-01-06The essential guide by one of America's leading doctors to how digital technology enables all of us to take charge of our health A trip to the doctor is almost a guarantee of misery. You'll make an appointment months in advance. You'll probably wait for several hours until you hear "the doctor will see you now"-but only for fifteen minutes! Then you'll wait even longer for lab tests, the results of which you'll likely never see, unless they indicate further (and more invasive) tests, most of which will probably prove unnecessary (much like physicals themselves). And your bill will be astronomical. In The Patient Will See You Now, Eric Topol, one of the nation's top physicians, shows why medicine does not have to be that way. Instead, you could use your smartphone to get rapid test results from one drop of blood, monitor your vital signs both day and night, and use an artificially intelligent algorithm to receive a diagnosis without having to see a doctor, all at a small fraction of the cost imposed by our modern healthcare system.
Graphic Medicine Resource
Taking Turns by ISBN: 9780271078182Publication Date: 2017-03-15In 1994, at the height of the AIDS epidemic in the United States, MK Czerwiec took her first nursing job, at Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago, as part of the caregiving staff of HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371. Taking Turns pulls back the curtain on life in the ward. A shining example of excellence in the treatment and care of patients, Unit 371 was a community for thousands of patients and families affected by HIV and AIDS and the people who cared for them. This graphic novel combines Czerwiec's memories with the oral histories of patients, family members, and staff. It depicts life and death in the ward, the ways the unit affected and informed those who passed through it, and how many look back on their time there today.
The Hospital Suite by ISBN: 9781770461642Publication Date: 2014-09-23Poetic musings on illness and the art of getting by from a mini-comics master The Hospital Suite is a landmark work by the celebrated cartoonist and small-press legend John Porcellino--an autobiographical collection detailing his struggles with illness in the 1990s and early 2000s. In 1997, John began to have severe stomach pain. He soon found out he needed emergency surgery to remove a benign tumor from his small intestine. In the wake of the surgery, he had numerous health complications that led to a flare-up of his preexisting tendencies toward anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The Hospital Suite is Porcellino's response to these experiences--simply told stories drawn in the honest, heart-wrenching style of his much-loved King-Cat mini-comics.
Healing through Writing and Art
Discussion Focus
Consider the therapeutic benefits of creative expression through writing and art for both patients and healthcare professionals, and how these practices contribute to healing and resilience
Suggested Readings
Writing As a Way of Healing by ISBN: 9780062515209Publication Date: 2000-01-01In this inspiring book, based on her twenty years of research, highly acclaimed author and teacher Louise DeSalvo reveals the healing power of writing. DeSalvo shows how anyone can use writing as a way to heal the emotional and physical wounds that are an inevitable part of life. Contrary to what most self-help books claim, just writing won't help you; in fact, there's abundant evidence that the wrong kind of writing can be damaging.
Graphic Medicine Resource
Graphic Medicine by ISBN: 9780824893330Publication Date: 2022-08-31In Graphic Medicine, comics artists and scholars of life writing, literature, and comics explore the lived experience of illness and disability through original texts, images, and the dynamic interplay between the two. The essays and autobiographical comics in this collection respond to the medical humanities' call for different perceptions and representations of illness and disability than those found in conventional medical discourse. The collection expands and troubles our understanding of the relationships between patients and doctors, nurses, social workers, caregivers, and family members, considering such encounters in terms of cultural context, language, gender, class, and ethnicity. By treating illness and disability as an experience of fundamentally changed living, rather than a separate narrative episode organized by treatment, recovery, and a return to "normal life," Graphic Medicine asks what it means to give and receive care.
Graphic Reproduction by ISBN: 9780271080949Publication Date: 2018-05-02This comics anthology delves deeply into the messy and often taboo subject of human reproduction. Featuring work by luminaries such as Carol Tyler, Alison Bechdel, and Joyce Farmer, Graphic Reproduction is an illustrated challenge to dominant cultural narratives about conception, pregnancy, and childbirth. The comics here expose the contradictions, complexities, and confluences around diverse individual experiences of the entire reproductive process, from trying to conceive to child loss and childbirth.
