Epistemological Reflections on the Art of Medicine and Narrative Medicine

This article challenges the widespread view that there is both a science and an art of medicine. Through examination of recent work in medical humanities —Jodi Halpern’s From Detached Concern to Empathy (2001), Kathryn Montgomery’s How Doctors Think (2006), and Rita Charon’s Narrative Medicine (2006)—I argue that while a variety of epistemic techniques are important in medicine, it is not helpful to dichotomize them as “science” versus “art.” I assess the epistemic strengths and weaknesses of narrative medicine, a recent exemplar of humanistic medicine.