Do doctors and patients speak the same language? And how might we bridge the evident gaps?
The Mind Reading project explores the patient experience through the prism of literature and personal narrative to consider the nature of – and relationships between – physical and mental health, or illness, and to inform self-care, patient-centred care, and practice.
We are interested in how literature can function as a source of comfort or a frame of reference in moments of pain, trauma, and mental illness, as well as the ways in which literary techniques like textual analysis might be employed as tools to improve communication and to foster understanding between medical learners, healthcare providers, service users, and family members.
We are a collaboration between UCD Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the Diseases of Modern Life Project and the University of Birmingham. Our intended activities comprise a series of explorations around the central theme of literature and mental health. They function as independent events, but are brought together by their intent to explore the best ways of drawing on the insights of historical and literary research in contemporary medical practice in the field of mental health.
