Annual Meeting Humanities Track Looks at Psychiatry as an Art

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Seven sessions in a new Humanities Track at APA’s 2024 Annual Meeting in New York will highlight how psychiatry can draw upon the arts, philosophy, and storytelling to enhance treatment of patients.

“There are many of us who see our work as being defined not only by our psychiatric identities, but also by the arts and humanities,” said Michael Bostwick, M.D., chair of the track. “The presentations in this track demonstrate how psychiatrists integrate the arts and humanities in their practices. They reflect a broad understanding of what we mean by the humanities—psychobiography, the use of narrative to teach, photography, medical narrative, and formulating symptoms as a story, using visual arts for introspection, self-exploration, and improvisation.”

Here is a brief description of the sessions:

• Joan of Arc: Neuroatypicality and the Formation of An Enduring Saint and a Feminist Icon (May 4, 10:30 a.m.-noon.): This session will explore a psychobiography of Joan of Arc through a developmental lens, considering her early life, relationships, personality, gender atypicality, and preoccupations. Speakers and the audience will then consider how these features contributed to her enduring power to elicit curiosity, taking into consideration evolving interpretations of her life over the ages and critical interpretations on gender, feminism, and ways in which her life can speak to people today.

• Disrupting the Medical Education Status Quo: Experiencing a Narrative-Centered, Humanistic, Interactive Training Model (May 7, 8 a.m.-9:30 a.m.): Workshop attendees will have an immersive experience as they take up the student role in a class taught according to the “Disruptions Model.” An opening lecture will focus on a harm reduction model for managing patients who do not respond to traditional addiction treatment. A videotaped interview titled “Wet House Dropout” will follow, in which a patient shares why she has failed dozens of interventions including treatment in a local residential facility for chronically alcoholic, treatment-resistant patients. Attendees will discuss the patient’s story, their reactions to it, and ways in which they might approach such a patient.

• The Role of Photographic Arts in Psychiatry (May 4, 1:30 p.m.- 3 p.m.): Both psychotherapy and photography create a situation of being simultaneously deeply engaged while also holding back—observing rather than experiencing. Similarly, in both cases, the practice of “evenly hovering attention” allows practitioners to see what otherwise might have been missed. These principles will be apparent in a clinical example that will show how photography provides an alternative means for adolescents to overcome their reluctance to speak and learn to express their feelings.

• Medical Narrative: A Tool of Humanistic Innovation (May 4, 3:45 p.m.-5:15 p.m.): Panelists will present advancements in psychiatry’s use of narrative, from the education of physicians and applications in research to its use in high-profile legal cases. Ezra Griffith, M.D., professor emeritus of psychiatry and African American studies at Yale University, a pioneer in the use of narrative in cultural and forensic contexts, will discuss these advancements in a field that continues to struggle with inequity and access. Griffith is also a member of the Psychiatric News Editorial Advisory Board and columnist.

• Confronting Stigma and Bias Through the Humanistic Arts: An Interactive Visual-Thinking Strategies Session (May 5, 10:30 a.m.-noon): Stigma associated with mental illness and bias toward individuals with psychiatric conditions have been recognized as threats to patient outcomes and public health, and health care professionals—including psychiatrists—are not immune. This interactive session will use Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) to help attendees think about and process their biased reactions to images. After a brief didactic presenting the key elements of VTS and its evidence base in medical education, participants will move into small groups where they will have an opportunity to engage in VTS discussions, acting as a participant or facilitator. After reflecting individually on the impact of the experience on awareness of their own biases, participants will come back together as a large group to share their reflections and ask questions.

• Improv-ing the Psychiatric Interview (May 5, 3:45-5:15 p.m.): Unlike much of the rote knowledge taught in medical training, mastery of psychiatric interview skills requires practice-based learning. A successful psychiatric interview requires skills including active listening, connection with the patient, the ability to respond to unspoken cues, and collaborative work toward a mutually desired therapeutic outcome. Comedic improvisation requires a similar skillset. This highly interactive workshop will engage participants in improvisational exercises with the goal of demonstrating how these exercises can be used to improve and teach the art of psychiatric interview skills. The use of improvisational exercises also prompts exploration of the role of humor within psychiatry and the therapeutic relationship.

• Help for the Healer: A Statewide Initiative to Support Medical Professionals (May 7. 8:00-9:30 a.m.): Project ECHO (Extension for Community Health Care Outcomes) is a collaborative model of medical education and care management that empowers clinicians in rural and underserved communities to provide specialty care to more people right where they live. Through the use of technology, Project ECHO connects an interdisciplinary team with health care professionals in the community to discuss treatment for chronic and complex medical conditions. Launched in 2003 by the University of New Mexico, Project ECHO operates more than 90 hubs worldwide covering more than 45 diseases and conditions. ■