Facilitator: Joseph Cady
Hospital Liaisons: Alyce Getler (591-6148); agetler@challiance.org
Location: Macht Auditorium, Cambridge Hospital
Day and Time: Wednesdays, 5:30-7:30 pm
Session 1: January 17 (snow date January 24)
Cross-cultural issues in Healthcare
Anne Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down (nonfiction). Read whole book if possible; if not, you may omit Chapters 10 (pp 119-139), 12 (157-170), and 14 (181-209)
Session 2: February 28
Coping with Illness
Anatole Broyard, from Intoxicated by My Illness: “Prologue,” “Intoxicated by My Illness,” “The Patient Examines the Doctor,” “Epilogue” (essays)
Lorrie Moore, “People Like That Are the Only People Here,” in Birds of America (story)
Marjorie Williams, “Hit by Lightning” and “The Halloween of My Dreams” (essays)
Session 3: March 21 (snow date March 28)
Bad News, Mistakes, Apologizing
Richard Selzer, “Sarcophagus” (story), "Imelda” (story)
Atul Gawande, “When Doctors Make Mistakes”(essay)
Raymond Carver, “A Small, Good Thing” (story)
Session 4: April 18
Flights of the Mind
William Styron, Darkness Visible (memoir)
Adam Haslett, “Notes to My Biographer” in You Are Not a Stranger Here (story)
Stephen Seager, selections from Psychward (nonfiction)
Anita Darcel Taylor, “By My Own Hand” (essay)
Session 5: May 16
Medicine on the Front Lines
Veneta Masson, from Rehab at the Florida Avenue Grill: “The Promise,” “Boutique,” “The Screamer in Room 4,” “Admission,” “Home Remedies for the Blues,” “Rehab at the Florida Avenue Grill,” “Litany of Dolores,” “Another Case of Chronic Pelvic Pain” (poems)
David Hilfiker, from Not All of Us Are Saints: “Avoidance” (nonfiction)
Tracy Kidder, excerpt from Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, pp. 18-32 (nonfiction)
Session 6: June 20
Moments of Grace
John Stone, “He Makes a House Call” (poem)
Rebecca Brown, from The Gifts of the Body: “The Gift of Wholeness,” “The Gift of Hunger,” “The Gift of Mourning” (fiction)
Richard Weinberg, “The Laying On of Hands” (vignette)
