Homo medicus as opposed to Homo patiens, the perspective of a physician will always be different from that of a patient. Modern medicine suffers from a major condition – ignoring the patient as a person. It may be remedied by narrative medicine which pays attention to humanistic aspects of a disease and to patient narratives of illness as a possibility to obtain invaluable information that is typically overlooked in a traditional medical history. Empathy and attentive listening play an important role here. Pathography, or patient accounts of their illnesses, may serve as a perfect complement to the practice and programmes of narrative medicine.
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.