A holistic approach to Henry Peach Robinson's "Fading Away" for a medical humanities class

Authors

  • Manpreet Lota
  • Shraya Divaker
  • Arun Kumar Dubey
  • Malpe Surekha Bhat Xavier University School of Medicine

Keywords:

Empathy, Fading away, Illness narrative, Holistic approach, Henry Peach Robinson, Medical humanities

Abstract

Henry Peach Robinson's "Fading away" can be interpreted either through a reductionist approach or a holistic approach. He perfected this fictional photograph through five negatives to create an anecdote and change attitudes towards tuberculosis. While there are many interpretations of this piece of art from a reductionistic approach "literary, artistic, humanistic, or illness-narrative" there are hardly any from a holistic perspective integrating all these angles. When used during a medical humanities course, the photograph provoked students to think beyond the purely artistic and the purely medical aspects of disease. Some of the messages that medical students took home were: 'grief could be experienced by anyone'; 'love expands into diverse manifestations during times of sadness; 'we must empathize with others and what they go through'. This paper reports on our attempt to adopt a holistic approach to analyze the photograph from Robinson's perspective and with respect to modern medicine.

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Author Biographies

Manpreet Lota

Medical Student, Xavier University School of Medicine, Oranjestad, Aruba

Shraya Divaker

Medical Student, Xavier University School of Medicine, Oranjestad, Aruba

Arun Kumar Dubey

Chief Academic Officer and Professor in Pharmacology, Xavier University School of Medicine, Aruba

Malpe Surekha Bhat, Xavier University School of Medicine

Former Assistant Dean, Curriculum Development & Planning and Former Coordinator for Medical Humanities, Xavier University School of Medicine, Aruba

References

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Abstract art by Himani Gupta depicting human bodies occupied in various activites in a community setting

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Published

2020-02-12

How to Cite

Lota, M., Divaker, S., Dubey, A. K., & Bhat, M. S. (2020). A holistic approach to Henry Peach Robinson’s "Fading Away" for a medical humanities class. Research and Humanities in Medical Education, 7, 8–14. Retrieved from https://rhime.in/ojs/index.php/rhime/article/view/224

Issue

Vol. 7 (2020)

Section

Perspective

License

Copyright (c) 2020 Manpreet Lota, Shraya Divaker, Arun Kumar Dubey, Malpe Surekha Bhat

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