Medical Humanities: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Health and Disease in Select Poems of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton

Abstract

Medical Humanities, an emerging interdisciplinary field that incorporates humanities (literature, philosophy, ethics, history, and religion), social sciences (anthropology, cultural studies, psychology, sociology), and arts (literature, theatre, film, and visual arts) into medical education and practice, emphasizes literature and the arts in relation to clinical practices, to cultivate skills such as observation, analysis, empathy, and self-reflection crucial for providing compassionate healthcare. The rise of Medical Humanities as a scholarly field in has led to more conversation about health and disease. Humanities and Arts offer valuable insight into human experience, suffering, personality, and social responsibility, as well as a historical perspective on medical practices. An interdisciplinary approach to health and illness, medicine, the body and narrative, material culture and the arts, disability and healthcare, ethics and pedagogy, and emerging global concerns might positively affect future living practices. The present paper examines Sylvia Plath's 'The Surgeon at 2 a.m.' and Anne Sexton's “The Operation” poems, which explore the normative and disciplinary aspects of medical practice. Plath and Sexton's 'clinical lyricism' challenges mainstream beliefs and power structures by depicting surgery as colonial or exploitative. In their poems, surgeons maintain their authority by assuming objectivity and disregarding patients' experiences. This process is expressed through images of colonization and surgeons' claim to transcendence. Sexton and Plath identify a paradox related to medical framework and the concept of bodily integrity.