ID-5184 Wonca Abstracts supplement A-K 13-10-23 - Flipbook - Page 187
WONCA 2023 Supplement 1: WONCA 2023 abstracts (A–K)
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Reading to stay alive: The healing power of literature
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E/Prof Christopher Dowrick
University of Liverpool
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The aim of this presentation is to explore how literary reading can ameliorate our personal and
vicarious experiences of suicide. It will consider how literature enables us to acknowledge the deeply
unconsolable, to ‘think’ reality when ordinary human thought falls short, to allow for the possibility
of imagining the ‘shabby, confused, agonised crisis which is the common reality of suicide’ and to
develop empathy towards individuals who seek it.
It will involve a case study of a patient – ‘Charlie’ – whose history of domestic abuse, breast cancer
and alcohol misuse, with loneliness exacerbated by the forced isolation of the COVID pandemic, puts
her at high risk of suicide. This will be linked with literary representations of suicide through a seminal
text, Leo Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina. The focus will be on the account of the last day of Anna’s life,
describing her stream of consciousness in the final moments before her death.
Participants will be invited to consider their personal reactions to the text; ways in which this text
resonates with elements of their own clinical experience; and what other literary or poetic works might
be relevant to their clinical encounters with patients in despair.
The intended outcome is to expand participants’ understanding of the recursive relationship between
literature and mental health, and in particular to see the potential value of literary reading as a means of
broadening our approach to suicide prevention.
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