Medical humanities companion: Volume one. Symptom
Edited by M Evans et al. (2008) • Oxon: Radcliffe Medical Press
This book, like Narrative in healthcare, is concerned with exploring humanness via the humanities. Studying the liberal arts allows us to see the more soulful aspects of ourselves - as opposed to the technocratic scientific basis of much of modern care - and this book presents, perhaps, a more immediate opportunity to do so.
That is not to say it is less scholarly: it is not. This book is erudite, but to my mind easier to read. The chapters are shorter, the language more knowable to the average reader (which is how I would class myself) and the examples more readily recognisable.
Thus, the chapter the "response to suffering" opens with reference to a poem by WB Yeats where the concern of a parent for their child is vivid and vital, and perfectly serves to illustrate how the individual responds to the subjective phenomenon of the symptom experience.
As someone who teaches a module about symptom management I see this becoming a useful and recommended reading text, such is the clarity of the writing and examples used to show human need and the carers' response.