Medicine for the soul : relations between medicine and humanity

Abstract

The human condition provides a common ground between medicine and literature as doctors and writers both witness and share in the passion and tragedy of human existence, particularly when death and disease intervene. Both doctors and writers are also inextricably involved in the outcomes of these struggles, hence the attempt to stand back and retain objectivity may not always succeed. Similarly, doctors and writers document the events and milestones that befall individuals, doctors in history taking and writers in life stories. It is therefore not at all surprising that the relationships, contacts and associations between medicine and literature are many, varied, and as old as the Greeks.