Writing for Balance: A Conversation with Doris Lessing

Earl G. Ingersoll has edited a collection of interviews with Doris Lessing, which OR Press will be publishing this spring. He teaches at SUNY College in Brockport, New York. Doris Lessing has published over 30 books, most recently African Laughter and The Real Thing: Stories and Sketches, both from HarperCollins 1992. She lives in London

On the notion of home and the goals of palliative care

The notion of home is well known from our everyday experience, and plays a crucial role in all kinds of narratives about human life, but is hardly ever systematically dealt with in the philosophy of medicine and health care. This paper is based upon the intuitively positive connotation of the term “home.” By metaphorically describing the goal of palliative care as “the patient’s coming home,” it wants to contribute to a medical humanities approach of medicine. It is argued that this metaphor can enrich our understanding of the goals of palliative care and its proper objectives. Four interpretations of “home” and “coming home” are explored: (1) one’s own house or homelike environment, (2) one’s own body, (3) the psychosocial environment, and (4) the spiritual dimension, in particular, the origin of human existence. Thinking in terms of coming home implies a normative point of view. It represents central human values and refers not only to the medical-technical and care aspects of health care, but also to the moral context

Interview

This interview took place on 23 June 1980 at Doris Lessing\u27s London home. The interviewer is Michael Thorpe. I would like to thank the British Council and Yolande Cantil. in particular for permission to print this excerpt from the interview

New English dramatists

238 p.; 18 cm

The fifth child

New York132 p.; 20 c

The good terrorist

397 tr. ; 21 cm

Citation de Doris Lessing : Un homme et deux femmes, Plon

Lessing Doris. Citation de Doris Lessing : Un homme et deux femmes, Plon. In: Sorcières : les femmes vivent, n°24, 1982. Mythes et nostalgies. p. 33

Citation de Doris Lessing : Un homme et deux femmes, Plon

Lessing Doris. Citation de Doris Lessing : Un homme et deux femmes, Plon. In: Sorcières : les femmes vivent, n°24, 1982. Mythes et nostalgies. p. 33