TR 11- 12:20 PM
Instructor: Arns
A modern translation of the Hippocratic Oath reads, “I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon’s knife or the chemist’s drug.” As humans, our health and well-being depend not only on scientific knowledge and on the surgical and medical skills of health practitioners and institutions of medical care, but also on the empathy and insight of these health professionals. Further, our health depends on our daily experiences in our home spaces, our communities and our cultures. Historically and in the present, a variety of factors including our diagnoses, our ethnicities, our geographies and demographics, our gender or gender orientation, our social status, and the degree to which our bodies are considered “normal” may determine our health experience. Drawing on literature, popular culture, or textual and visual rhetoric, this class addresses social, cultural, and ethical dimensions of the human health experience.