Pathographies of Mental Illness, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston (McGovern)

What is it like to be mentally ill? How can we best care for sufferers of mental illness as well as their families and friends? To answer these questions, we turn to sufferers and their loved ones, as this course focuses on experiential (auto)biographical works that concern mental illness—an intellectual enterprise in medical humanities sometimes referred to as “pathography.” The class will consist of 11 sessions. These sessions will focus on the class readings. Each class meeting will be discussion-based, not lectured-based—that is, the class meetings will be conducted as a humanities-style graduate seminar. UTH, Houston (McGovern) also sponsors blue book, or extracurricular, electives each semester. These electives are designed to supplement and enrich the medical school’s curriculum, exposing students to a range of topics related to the humanities and ethics. Some electives are faculty-led; however, a growing number of these courses are designed by medical students who have identified topics of interest or gaps that can be addressed through the medical humanities. Relevant courses that use literature include: Introduction to Medical Humanities, Humanities in Dermatology, and Humanities in Film. For more information, see https://med.uth.edu/mcgovern/teaching/bluebook-electives/ This information has been collected for the Post-Discipline Online Syllabus Database. The database explores the use of literature by schools of professional education in North America. It forms part of a larger project titled Post-Discipline: Literature, Professionalism, and the Crisis of the Humanities, led by Dr Merve Emre with the assistance of Dr Hayley G. Toth. You can find more information about the project at https://postdiscipline.english.ox.ac.uk/. Data was collected and accurate in 2021/22.