Narrative Medicine talks: 7.5.2025 (Helsinki) & 9.5.2025 (Turku)
Danielle Spencer (Narrative Medicine Program, Columbia University) will give two invited talks in Finland in May.
”Narrative medicine: Reading, healthcare, and humanity”
Wednesday, May 7, 4pm
Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, Common Room 3rd floor, Fabianinkatu 24a, Helsinki (read more)
Narrative medicine brings healthcare into conversation with literature. It begins with a comparison between listening and reading, with the physician as the “reader” and interpreter of stories of illness. Honing skills of close reading is thought to improve clinical skills. This comparison then broadens to invite wider questions. For example, who is entitled to read and interpret—might there be a shared responsibility? What is the scope of the “text” being read—does it include simply the biomedical data, or the lifeworld of the person? And to what extent is the relationship of care displaced by data-driven systems? Narrative medicine offers tools to preserve our humanity as we move further into an age dominated by systemic control, technology and now AI.
”Narrative Medicine and Metagnosis”
Friday, May 9, 12pm
Educarium, lecture room (luentosali) Edu2, Assistentinkatu 5, Turku
Narrative Medicine is a form of clinical care conducted with attentiveness to narrative. It is also an interdisciplinary field of inquiry joining healthcare and the humanities. I will describe fundamental principles and practices of the field, as well as its applications in clinical practice. As an example of its applications, I discuss my work on metagnosis, referring to the diagnosis of a longstanding undetected condition. This can occur when the condition simply was not detected—as was the case for my own long-standing visual field “defect”—and can also occur when the diagnostic definitions have shifted, as with ADHD and autism spectrum disorders. I propose that a narrative medicine approach to such revelations illuminates different understandings of normalcy, disease, disability, and identity. These experiences also invite different “readings” and open towards multiple possible narrative outcomes. Ultimately such narrative awareness promises greater empowerment in healthcare and beyond.
Danielle Spencer, Ph.D. is the author of Metagnosis: Revelatory Narratives of Health and Identity (Oxford UP, 2021) and co-author of Perkins-Prize-winning The Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine (Oxford UP, 2017). Academic Director of the Columbia University Master of Science in Narrative Medicine Program, her scholarly and creative work appears in diverse outlets, from The Lancet to Ploughshares. Formerly artist/musician David Byrne’s Art Director, Spencer holds a B.A. from Yale University, an M.S. in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, and has been awarded fellowships at MacDowell and Yaddo. Lives in New York city. www.daniellespencer.com
The events are organized by Kone foundation’s Words for Care project, Uniarts Helsinki’s Health, Narrative, and the Arts research project, and the Research Centre for Culture and Health (Kulttuurin ja terveyden tutkimusyksikkö) at University of Turku, in collaboration with the University of Helsinki’s Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies.