Books for doctorlings

[liv]

So the medical school is having a drive to encourage students to engage more with arts and humanities, so we don't end up with a lot of future doctors who haven't read a novel since they finished GCSE English. And they're asking for suggestions for books worth recommending to the students.

This seems like an interesting question, so I'm throwing it open to you: if you could recommend one book you'd like your doctor to have read, what would it be? They specify that it doesn't have to be about a directly medical topic, but just something that could help very science-specialized people to understand more about being human. Non-fiction is ok but they want literary non-fiction, things like biographies, rather than textbooks.

My thinking about this is that there's no point recommending the obvious nineteenth century Dead White Men classics, because even if the students were funnelled out of anything to do with literature in their mid teens they're all high achievers, they've almost certainly all "done" Dickens for GCSE and got As for their essays. And even the ones who don't read have read The man who mistook his wife for a hat because various how to get into medical school guides push it as something to mention at interview.

So, suggestions?

Comments

[liv]

Well, we do teach our students about the social model and disablism and so on, but being taught doesn't mean they actually learn it. In fact, I was really really delighted a couple of years back when they replaced a somewhat dreadful if well-meaning mobility aid simulation with a workshop run by a trainer who is herself physically disabled as the core of this part of the teaching. It might well be that they'll learn better from reading a novel they empathize with, than from formal teaching.

I think I personally need to read the Quarmby, though it's daunting. I think it's too scholarly for this particular project where we're looking more for engagement with literature and Humanities. But I might well try and get it onto the more core reading list for the disability module, as it sounds highly relevant and more up-to-date than a lot of the theoretical sociology stuff we're assigning at the moment.

[davidgillon]

a somewhat dreadful if well-meaning mobility aid simulation

Oh, god, I absolutely loathe simulations, the only thing they teach people is to be scared of disability.

I think I personally need to read the Quarmby, though it's daunting.

That's a really good word for it. Gruelling would be another.

get it onto the more core reading list for the disability module

It absolutely needs to be on that, because most people are in denial that disability hate crime is widespread, I doubt doctors are any different, and it's going to be an issue for some of the patients they encounter.