The secret in literature and medicine: for an ethics of sharing

Abstract

Literature and medicine are two disciplines in-between Arts and Sciences, and the fertility of their dialogue is evident in the flowering of Narrative Medicine, about three decades after its onset. Very present today in medical research, practice and training, NM re-proposed the question of the subject, which is central in medical ethics, to the core of the therapeutic relationship. Given the current hyper-scientific evolution of medicine and healthcare, it is important to continue on reasoning and questioning notions as the “secret”, closely related to categories as subjectivity and intimacy. This article follows this evolution and the modern settings in medicine and literature in order to establish new bridges between a medical ethics concerned with the loss of the singular conversation and human reality and a literary discourse capable of activating operative resources through which the secret can be converted into a central element for a qualitative intersubjective encounter.