The Journal of Medical Humanities, Vol 16, No. 3, 1995

Editorial

This issue of the Journal is the first of two issues devoted to the theme of pedagogy in the medical humanities. When Delese Wear offered to serve as guest editor, I was sure the manuscripts she elicited would provide an excellent look at this topic. I have not been disappointed.

Jacalyn Duff'm describes a course she built for medical students on the history of medicine. Her stated purpose was to make students a bit more skeptical about everything else they were taught in an effort to foster humility. She also hoped to raise the consciousness of the students about medical history as a research discipline as compelling as any of the basic or clinical sciences they are traditionally taught.

Harriet Squier describes the methods of teaching Literature and Medi- cine at Michigan State University. She suggests ways of finding and using essays, short stories, poetry, novels, and traditional literary classics. She de- scribes two medical school courses and the application of literature to fam- ily practice residency training.

Tod Chambers discusses his experiments with the teaching of clinical ethics and what he calls practical wisdom (phronesis).

Delese Wear takes a look at the teaching of medical humanities from a feminist perspective. Her essay includes two stories that point to distrac- tions in our teaching.

This first issue deals with the teaching of history, literature, and ethics. There is more to come in the next issue.

C.R.R

151

�9 1995 Human Sciences Pre~ Inc.