Epistemological reflections on the art of medicine and narrative medicine

Abstract

This article challenges the widespread view that there is both a science and an art of medicine. Through examination of recent work in medical humanities --Jodi Halpern's From Detached Concern to Empathy (2001), Kathryn Montgomery's How Doctors Think (2006), and Rita Charon's Narrative Medicine (2006)--I argue that while a variety of epistemic techniques are important in medicine, it is not helpful to dichotomize them as "science" versus "art." I assess the epistemic strengths and weaknesses of narrative medicine, a recent exemplar of humanistic medicine.