Medical Humanities comprises disciplines as diverse as literature, the visual and performing arts, the history of medicine, and bioethics. Josie Billington examines the value that literature adds to medical education in health training and practice, and defends the power of the arts as a remedial force.

• Introduction: Medical Humanities, History and Development, Ancient to Present


• 1: Illness and Health


• 2: Narrative and Storytelling


• 3: Reading Groups, Private Reading, Personal Reading


• Conclusion: Futures

Josie Billington is Deputy Director of the Centre for Research into Reading at the University of Liverpool.