The Humanities

Having just returned from a wonderful conference at the University of Iowa, I am full of thoughts about the humanities and our need to place greater emphasis upon them in higher education.

The conference was titled "The Examined Life: Writing and the Art of Medicine."  It was thoroughly enjoyable, and it gave me a renewed sense of hope that there really are doctors who care about branches of knowledge outside of the sciences.

So many of my colleagues seem to have a fund of knowledge in the humanities that approaches absolute zero.  (Yes, I know, Lord Kelvin would object to this characterization.)  But so often remarks upon famous literary figures and their works, nineteenth century US politics, Baroque music, or even the history or philosophy of medicine itself have drawn blank looks.

At this conference no one doubted the importance of the humanities to the medical profession, but there was significant discussion of the views of others on that subject.  Do members of the general public care whether their doctors know anything outside of medicine and science?  Do they think a broader educational foundation, and the continued pursuit of knowledge in other disciplines throughout life, help physicians to connect with their patients as human beings?

I hope they do.  When I ponder these matters, I try not to think about the responses elicited by Jay Leno when he talks to people on the street, on camera ("Jay-Walking").  "Who wrote Handel's Messiah?"  I laughed at the question, as it reminded me of junior high school humor (Who is buried in Grant's tomb?).  But the answer?  "I don't read books."  That revealed ignorance (as my teenage and young adult daughters would say) on so many levels.

Did you know that Nathaniel Hawthorne and Franklin Pierce were good friends?

If you did, I'd be delighted to make your acquaintance at a cocktail party some day - or to have you as a patient.  If you didn't, you could look it up.