Medicine and the arts

Three years' experience in teaching a course in Literature and Medicine is reviewed. Examples of the ‘Laboratory’ or ‘in vitro’ functions of art are given, as they relate to and benefit both medical students and practitioners. The usefulness of literature (especially) in the medical setting is underscored, together with the need for medical personnel to be more aware of their heritage in this area. Examples of well-known physicians who have excelled in the arts (literature, music, painting/sculpture) are given and their major contributions discussed. There are some surprises.     

Analogy Between the Theorem of Pythagoras and the Relations of Uncertainty of Heisenberg

In this work I propose an analogy between Pythagoras's theorem and the logical-formal structure of Werner Heisenberg's “relations of uncertainty.” The reasons that they have pushed to me to place this analogy have been determined from the following ascertainment: Often, when in exact sciences a problem of measurement precision arises, it has been resolved with the resource of the elevation to the square. To me it seems also that the aporie deriving from the uncertainty principle can find one solution with the resource to this stratagem. In fact, if the first classic example of the argument is the solution of the incommensurability between catheti and the hypotenuse of the triangle rectangle, one of the last cases is that which is represented from Heisenberg's principle of uncertainty.     

Sociology and psychoanalysis in the liberal arts

Abstract

This paper posits that an infusion of psychoanalytic concepts into the teaching of sociology in undergraduate liberal arts curricula offers a route to expanding students’ understanding of how self and society are entwined in a condition of mutual crisis in contemporary society. We argue that the liberatory project at the core of the liberal arts is served well by linking the critical perspectives found in these two disciplines. We provide as specific examples from our own teaching: (1) a demonstration of how Freud’s concept of neurosis has an affinity with Marx’s concept of alienation; and (2) a discussion of how the torture sequence in Orwell’s 1984 presents an inversion of a psychoanalytic treatment through which the power of propaganda is illuminated. We conclude that teaching the two disciplines in tandem helps students grasp how the self is a socially constructed entity and how the orthodoxies of neurosis and social control are available for critique and change.     

Literary arts and the development of the life story

Throughout adolescence, children begin to develop their life story: a coherent account of their experiences and selfhood. Although the nature of this development is still being uncovered, one promising direction for research is the examination of factors that could encourage life story development. Here the authors explore the idea that exposure to the literary arts (i.e., poetry and fictional literature) might promote the formation of a coherent autobiographical narrative. Taking a critical look at both theoretical proposals along with the current empirical research, they provide a brief survey of this intriguing hypothesis.     

Luther,learning, and the liberal arts

The learning goals of a well‐designed course in the liberal arts include not only the imparting of knowledge but also the development of critical thinking and disciplinary expertise. A class on Luther can help students acquire those intellectual skills associated with the discipline of history and the liberal arts more generally as they consider broader questions about institutional religion, spirituality, moral choices, and human agency. Current scholarship on how people learn highlights the importance of adequate mental frameworks for the acquisition, retention, and retrieval of new ideas and information. This scholarship underlies the choice of specific strategies used to teach about Luther and the Reformation. Assignments provide “scaffolding,” which begins with modeling and then moves from simpler to more complex assignments. Students practice the specific intellectual skills of critical reading and textual analysis over the course of the semester.     

Computers and the liberal arts: Challenge to psychology

Three years ago Drew University began a campus-wide effort to integrate microcomputers into courses across the entire liberal arts curriculum. This paper summarizes the results of 14 studies that have assessed student and faculty responses to this effort, and concludes by suggesting some implications of these studies for psychologists involved in the design and evaluation of similar programs.     

Tragic figures: Thoughts on the visual arts and anatomy

The illustrated anatomical works of Andreas Vesalius, now icons of medical history, exemplified Renaissance humanists' attitudes toward the human condition. Methods of teaching medical students gross anatomy have evolved from the attitudes and methods of Renaissance scientist-scholars. The work of Vesalius is crucial to understanding the revolution in early modern medicine, for not only is it devoted to minute observation and exploration of the human body, but also to translating new knowledge by means of art. In the process of illustration, the cadavers become ennobled, leading the viewer to contemplation of the nature of our common humanity. It is the thesis of this paper that the merging of art and science achieved in the great anatomical studies of the 16th and 17th centuries may still be useful in the education of medical students by allowing a balance between scientific detachment and compassion.     

Empathy in sports,exercise, and the performing arts

ObjectivesThis review article provides a summary of the main findings from empirical studies that used empathy measurements in the domains of sports, exercise, and the performing arts (i.e., music, dance, and theatrical acting).Method & resultsThe use of body movement is considered a common denominator across performance domains. Embodied accounts of cognition claim that the capacity to understand an individual's cognitive and affective states depend on the observer's sensorimotor experience and seek to identify the factors influencing this process. To describe the bidirectional links between empathy and performance domains, we divided the empirical studies into two categories: those that investigated factors influencing or inducing empathy, and those that investigated possible influences of empathic tendencies on neurocognitive functions and performance. Therefore, the review includes sections on (1) effects on empathy, including (a) gender, (b) learning and performance, and (c) prosocial contexts; and (2) the effects of empathy on (a) the brain and physiology, (b) perception–performance relations, and (c) prosocial behavior. This work has proven to be informative in unraveling the links between empathy and perceptual-motor processes across intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intergroup levels of analysis.ConclusionsThe reported findings are examined in relation to embodied accounts of perceptual-motor performance. Issues related to interdisciplinary dialog, implications for research, and applied practice are also discussed.     

Images of engineering and liberal arts majors

In an attempt to gain insight into social-psychological barriers that inhibit women from entering engineering, 110 male and 84 female undergraduate students completed a variant of the Semantic Differential questionnaire. Subjects evaluated either male or female liberal arts and engineering majors. While female engineering majors were judged similar to male engineers on work-related traits, they were evaluated as less attractive than their female liberal arts counterparts. In particular, the data revealed reciprocal negative social images held by male engineering students for female engineers and by female engineering students for male engineers.     

道教术数与传统数学思想考析

南宋著名数学家秦九韶有一句名言“数与道非二本”,很早就注意到自然界的数量关系与天地自然之道的本质联系。道门人士对天地之道的积极探寻,必然会涉及自然之道的数量关系和空间形式,从而在数学领域有所建树。本文从道教术数与传统数学思想这一视角对此作一些尝试性解读与探索,分析探讨了道教重视术数、关注数学的内在原因,并指明研究道教数学思想的学术价值。