Doctors and Paintings

This work includes forewords by Sir Liam Donaldson and Peter Wheeler, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health; Dean, College of Fine Arts, University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Appreciating art can help doctors build empathy with patients and reduce stress. By stimulating thought and reflection through paintings, this concise and engaging text invites readers to examine their motivation, their profession and their world. This exciting new book provides vital refreshment for doctors and medical students, lecturers and tutors in medical humanities, and healthcare professionals with mentoring roles. 'John and Erica Middleton guide the reader gently along the interface between art and medicine, in their own inimitable style. Whether in search of an introduction to the world of art, or wishing to consider the role that the formal study of art might play in professional development, reading this book is likely to prove rewarding. Turning these pages will help doctors to appreciate afresh the window through which they look upon the world' - Sir Liam Donaldson, in his Foreword. 'Great art provides insights into the human condition. If through a systematic engagement with art and literature as an extension of their medical practice, GPs can apply those insights to themselves (know thyself), they can equally apply them when dealing with patients. Doctors and patients are people, subjects. Intersubjectivity is perhaps a better word than empathy to define what this book seeks to promote, the capacity of the doctor to enter into and inhabit the patient's subjectivity' - Peter Wheeler, in his Foreword.