
How People Change
The Short Story as Case History
William Tucker(Author)
Other Press LLC
Published on 17. June 2007
Book
Paperback/Softback
336 pages
978-1-59051-212-8 (ISBN)
Description
A manual to show practicing physicians and medical students how to make use of short stories to help their patients adapt to their illnesses and participate in their treatment.
For most people, the quickest route to wisdom, other than experience, is through stories. Stories speak across generational lines and cultures, emphasize the universality of human experience, and offer insight into the dynamics involved in unfamiliar situations.
Freud and D.W. Winnicott were among the few psychiatrists able to write case histories emblematic of the vicissitudes of the human condition. As a rule, the technical and dry approach of the psychiatric literature is not fit to teach doctors how to connect to their patients' suffering because it privileges pathological categories over experience. Tucker, therefore, turns to the drama and conflicts of fictional characters, to restore the human dimension of medicine and to entice practitioners to grasp the emotional and intellectual layers of the particular situations in which their patients are entrapped. The sixteen stories selected here are analyzed to show how they illustrate the process of change, as defined by Erik Erikson's description of the "life cycle." Some of these stories include "Gooseberries" by Anton Chekhov, "The Dead" by James Joyce, and "Her First Ball" by Katherine Mansfield. Physicians and medical students can turn to these narratives as examples of how others have dealt with challenges and debilitating conditions, and encourage their patients to follow similar paths to bring about change in their lives.
For most people, the quickest route to wisdom, other than experience, is through stories. Stories speak across generational lines and cultures, emphasize the universality of human experience, and offer insight into the dynamics involved in unfamiliar situations.
Freud and D.W. Winnicott were among the few psychiatrists able to write case histories emblematic of the vicissitudes of the human condition. As a rule, the technical and dry approach of the psychiatric literature is not fit to teach doctors how to connect to their patients' suffering because it privileges pathological categories over experience. Tucker, therefore, turns to the drama and conflicts of fictional characters, to restore the human dimension of medicine and to entice practitioners to grasp the emotional and intellectual layers of the particular situations in which their patients are entrapped. The sixteen stories selected here are analyzed to show how they illustrate the process of change, as defined by Erik Erikson's description of the "life cycle." Some of these stories include "Gooseberries" by Anton Chekhov, "The Dead" by James Joyce, and "Her First Ball" by Katherine Mansfield. Physicians and medical students can turn to these narratives as examples of how others have dealt with challenges and debilitating conditions, and encourage their patients to follow similar paths to bring about change in their lives.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
550 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-59051-212-8 (9781590512128)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
08/2019
Other Press
€13.49
Available for download
Person
William Tucker, M.D.
William Tucker, M.D., is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He has been teaching psychiatry and the humanistic aspects of medicine to psychiatric residents, medical students learning internal medicine, and interested colleagues, for the past 30 years.
William Tucker, M.D., is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He has been teaching psychiatry and the humanistic aspects of medicine to psychiatric residents, medical students learning internal medicine, and interested colleagues, for the past 30 years.