Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: writing

  • An evolving journey: Writing as healing art

    Amy Webb Pawleys Island, South Carolina, United States   Photography by Elena Levitskaya, RN It started simply enough. Soon after my diagnosis, a friend and fellow breast cancer survivor counseled me about protecting a space for healing. We discussed the need to create that delicate balance of keeping a network of friends and family informed…

  • The patient writer: finding meaning in authorship and illness

    Ben Murnane Dublin, Ireland   The Two Suitcases Project involves teenagers with chronic illness working with professional filmmakers to create short movies. Storytelling methods include live action, animation, and puppetry. If a person lives with chronic illness, is there “a person” that can be separated from the illness? I suppose many people would say, “Of…

  • Screenwriting: psychiatry in reverse

    Stephen Potts Edinburgh, United Kingdom   Introduction Good Will Hunting publicity poster The subject matter of medicine is inherently dramatic. Decisions taken by professionals who are highly skilled, but still human and therefore flawed, are applied to suffering patients in situations of pressure and can have radically diverse outcomes: life or death; disability or cure:…