Un-Earthing Emotions through Art: Facilitating Reflective Practice with Poetry and Photographic Imagery

• Published in: The Journal of medical humanities 2015-06, Vol.36 (2), p.171-176
• Main Authors: Lapum, Jennifer, Yau, Terrence, Church, Kathryn, Ruttonsha, Perin, Matthews David, Alison
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cultural and Media Studies; Emotions; Humans; Imagination; Literature; Medicine in Literature; Medicine in the Arts; Photography; Physician's Role - psychology; Physician-Patient Relations; Poetry as Topic; Regional and Cultural Studies; Stress, Psychological; Theory of Medicine/Bioethics
• ISSN: 1041-3545; 1573-3645
• DOI: 10.1007/s10912-013-9258-0

In this article, we comment upon and provide an arts-informed example of an emotive-focused reflection of a health care practitioner. Specifically, we use poetry and photographic imagery as tools to un-earth practitioners’ emotions within agonizing and traumatic clinical encounters. In order to recognize one’s own humanness and authentically engage in the art of medicine, we immerse ourselves in the first author’s poetic and photographic self-reflection. The poem and image are intended to inspire interpretation and meaning based on the reader’s own professional and/or personal context. The last line of the poem is “I take off the gloves. My hands are marked.”