44 min listen
What a James Baldwin story can teach doctors and patients about care amidst suffering
What a James Baldwin story can teach doctors and patients about care amidst suffering
ratings:
Length:
63 minutes
Released:
Mar 19, 2024
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
“Sonny’s Blues” is a 1956 story by the author, James Baldwin, about a “sensible” and pragmatic algebra teacher and his younger musically gifted younger brother (“Sonny”), who struggles with heroin addiction. Both of them, raised in Harlem, are deeply affected by anti-Black racism. Although the older brother, who narrates the story, feels responsible for Sonny, he struggles to relate to him. With the help of an English professor, Laura Greene at Augustana College, we reflect on some of the lessons of this story for the physician-patient relationship, especially when caring for individuals with substance use disorder. We explore the cost both to patients and to ourselves, as healthcare professionals, of holding patients at arm’s length because we fear engaging, especially in the face of suffering. A PDF of “Sonny’s Blues,” can be accessed from the story’s Wiki page (scroll down to external links).
Released:
Mar 19, 2024
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (49)
Part 1: Pursuing a Dream and a Calling: Dr. LaMenta Conway shares what she experienced and learned growing up in an economically and socially marginalized community in Chicago, pursuing a dream to become a physician. by On Becoming a Healer