The language of care: narrative medicine

Narrative medicine is based on authentic stories of illness, health and well-being and not on literary artefacts, which instead belong to the world of humanities for health. Why study narratives in the world of healthcare? The Authors answer this question by stating that the narrative medicine gives us back how the sick person lives, in compliance with the holistic model of care (biological, psychological, social and spiritual) proposed by the WHO. The Authors highlight three Areas of narrative medicine application: a. clinical practice, where it facilitates understanding between doctor and patient and guide towards a holistic approach to care, aimed at the search for well-being; b. training: the institution for some years in some American, Canadian and European universities (including Italian ones), of training courses in narrative medicine and medical humanities overcomes the technicality of the biomedical model and build a professionalism that possesses not only technical skills, but also relational skills. c. research, where creates a series of opportunities, that can generate new hypotheses and helping to define patient-centered guidelines. In conclusion, narrative medicine is an operation of listening and observation that improves the relationship through empathy and is able to contribute, through research, to the evolution of clinical, care, therapeutic, psychological, social, spiritual aspects, promoting the well-being of patients, their loved ones and their caregivers

Discovering ante litteram models of writing that heals and saves. After Giuseppe Berto, Marianna Procopio

If the theories that came from America could have had no influence on Berto’s Il male oscuro, an established and successful author in whom I accidentally discovered for the first time an ante litteram model of narrative medicine, much less could they have had on the writing of a rather singular book, published in Padua 1962, with the title Diario e altri testi. The book consists of four parts. The text that interests us is contained in the first of them, subtitled Malattia e morte della madre, and divided into several unnumbered chapters. The author is Marianna Procopio. An atypical case from a literary point of view, Marianna was a housewife born at the end of the nineteenth century in Calabria, with an education that stopped at the third grade, and she wrote for the first time in her life at the age of fifty, after a trauma caused by the death of her mother. This event broke Marianna’s life into two parts that would never be reunited again and rises in her mind to the disturbing grandeur of an epochal era, placing all the rest of the events in a ‘relative’ time that was either before or after it. Wandering around the rooms of the house in vain search for a presence that is such only in her imagination and dreams, Marianna finds in fixing memories on paper, in reviewing the moments that slowly led her mother to death, in continuously updating the calendar of the anniversary, a catharsis from the suffering that is offered by the liberating function of writing. Marianna Procopio’s Diary is therefore the second ante litteram narrative medicine model I discovered

Digital technologies supporting medicine: open innovative resources

In the era of platformization, platforms induce us to build social relationships based on aggregative processes rather than rational thinking that goes through processes of abstraction and objectification of reality. The pandemic from Covid 19 has shown the phenomenon in all its severity, in a seesaw cycle of often contradictory information that has weighed enormously in public opinion, generating a dangerous situation of infodemia. Emotions are now prevailing in public opinion-building processes. The growing crisis in journalism and the loss of credibility and reputation of the traditional media has been embedded in a broader crisis affecting institutions, governments, science, and the foundations of democracy as we experienced them at the turn of the second half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. In the age of the Metaverse and Artificial Intelligence, the definitions that applied until recently, the separation between real and virtual, categories that no longer exist with the increasingly massive digitization of processes, have been undone. In the medical field, too, the use of digital innovation, is becoming more and more widespread, and it brings with it numerous questions: in what digital innovation or AI can it be useful to medicine? Is it reliable? What risks do we face? Will computers replace physicians

Gender and health. Narrative medicine as cure instrument

Despite of the approval of the law favoring gender medicine, its application turns out to be limited both in hospitals and in general medicine clinics. The reasons are multiple, but among the stickiness concerning organizational issues and slow changes in education, one of the major problems may be identified in the complexity of the concept of gender. It requires an interdisciplinary approach and such an instrument as gender medicine, which should embrace, through narration, the existential and social aspects of a disease

Narrative Medicine in small animals’ veterinary practice

In veterinary medicine, unlike human medicine, this innovative approach which falls within the scope of psychoneuroendocrineimmunology, is structured around a triad of relationships between doctor, client and patient: which aims to cultivate a relationship of trust with the client, take into account of the patient’s individuality and the influence of the relationship with his caretaker. Common themes between veterinary medicine and human medicine are represented by the omnipresence of narration, the need for a partnership relationship, the importance of an individual and holistic approach without neglecting the professional well-being of health professionals. To add these objectives, the following are important: the need for training, time management, empathy management, narrative skills. In conclusion, all this could bring numerous advantages to veterinary clinical practice

Introduction

Narrative Medicine and the Rhetoric of the Sick Body as a Tool for Medical Humanities Conference Proceedings - Messina, 17 gennaio 202

Seneca’s sick body between evidentia and parenesis

The article examines the last three years of Seneca’s life, who after his political failure, chooses a secluded life, dedicating himself entirely to philosophy. In this introspection the author focuses on the suffering of his own body, sick and vulnerable, to demonstrate that illness can be endured if not defeated by the strength of the soul if constantly trained in philosophical reflection. Some of the Moral Letters to Lucilius are examined (8, 26, 27, 53, 54, 78), in which Seneca brings into play the habitual practice of self-examination and dialogue to deal with his sick body in a narrative way, to the point that more than autobiography one can speak of an ‘autopathography’. To recount his physical pain and share it with others with the effective clarity that ethical parenesis demands, Seneca delves into medical texts (De medicina by Celsus; Compositiones medicamentorum by Scribonius Largo, outreach activities of illustrious exponents of the various medical schools present in Rome)

Un'esplosione di conoscenza: dalla teoria alla pratica per ridurre le disuguaglianze: Atti dell’ XI CONVEGNO NAZIONALE sul Document Delivery e la cooperazione interbibliotecaria

Il volume raccoglie gli atti dell'XI Conferenza Nilde che ha rappresentato la funzione strategica delle biblioteche nell'accesso alla conoscenza e nella circolazione delle informazioni. Tra i temi della Conferenza, i relatori hanno sottolineato l'importante ruolo delle biblioteche nel sostenere l'inclusività, ridurre le disuguaglianze e promuovere un accesso all'informazione più ampio ed equo per tutti, indipendentemente dai Paesi di provenienza e dalle risorse disponibili. Particolare attenzione è stata rivolta ai nuovi progetti ispirati dalla pandemia, come Hermes - Strengthening digital resource sharing during Covid and beyond, di cui sono stati mostrati i primi risultati. Infine, un altro tema chiave è stato quello dell'Open Science, con un confronto tra le iniziative portate avanti da Università e Istituti di ricerca

Intervento del Rappresentante del Personale Tecnico, Amministrativo e Bibliotecario

Intervento all'inaugurazione dell'anno accademico 2023-2024 dell'Università degli Studi di Messin