Making a Case for the Use of Nontraditional Courses in Educating Medical Students on Issues of Mental Illness

Abstract

Healing and Madness is a course offered to second-year medical students at SUNY Stony Brook School of Medicine, Division of Medicine in Contemporary Society. Students who choose this course, during the annual selective offerings, have an opportunity to explore and express their attitudes towards issues of mental illness through the poetic art form. The need, value, and outcome of a bibliotherapy technique applied in a nontraditional setting are examined in this article. The use of the double message poem, a particular device, is employed to create a paper-dialogue (stream of consciousness between writer and subject). Underscoring the potentiality for increasing levels of sensitivity in the doctor/patient and doctor/family relationship, Healing and Madness offers a unique educational experience for medical students on the issues of mental illness.