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. 2022 Jun;27(7):1615-1625.
doi: 10.1177/1359105321999107. Epub 2021 Mar 11.

Novels as data: Health humanities and health psychology

Ad A Kaptein  1
Affiliations

Novels as data: Health humanities and health psychology

Ad A Kaptein. J Health Psychol. 2022 Jun.

Abstract

Novels represent a corpus of data that offers innovative opportunities for research and theory in health psychology. This article discusses how adding 'health humanities' to health psychology opens up a potentially rich domain for research and clinical application. The concept of 'health humanities' is discussed and put into a context of related fields. The concepts of 'illness perceptions' and 'models of patient-health care provider interaction' are used as illustrations. Applications are given, focusing on patients and their caregivers, health care providers and society at large (bibliotherapy and expressive writing). Suggestions for further development of the area are included.

Keywords: art; health humanities; health psychology; interpretative phenomenological analysis; medical humanities; novels.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

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