Beyond the diagnosis: the power of words in healthcare

This course is aimed at healthcare professionals, as well as those with a background in anthropology, narratology, philosophy, and the humanities.

Provide an overview of the theoretical framework of recent decades on the interrelationship between narrative and illness.

We are used to phrases like "everything will be fine", "there is nothing wrong with you", or "you have an aggressive cancer". But what is hidden behind these words? We know that language not only describes reality, but also shapes it. Words are not neutral: they can soothe or hurt, open possibilities or close them, give meaning to suffering or intensify it. In healthcare, the way we name and explain what is happening is part of the care. Words help shape how patients live and understand their experience, and listening to their stories allows us to move beyond strictly technical medicine toward a more human practice that heals, cares for, and accompanies them.

In this course, we will explore some of the key philosophical and anthropological reflections on the role of language in clinical practice, analyze real-life situations, and offer tools to refine listening and the use of words, with the aim of providing better care through what we say.

Session 1. Opening lecture: Narrative in the grieving process (Instructor: Dr. Francesc Torralba) When faced with the death of a loved one, we often feel that there are simply no words. In this session, we will examine what can be expressed through language about an event that leaves you speechless, and how narrative shapes the process of trying to come to terms with the unbearable.

Session 2. Caring with words (Instructor: Dr. Mar Rosàs)
We use and hear phrases like "you have a chronic illness" or "you have aggressive cancer," but what lies behind these words? In this session, we will explore how the stories told by patients, healthcare professionals, family members, the media, and even public administrations directly shape how illness is experienced and how the patient's identity is reconfigured after the diagnosis of a serious condition.

Session 3. "Narrative medicine" (Instructor: Dr. Montse Esquerda) What does it mean that "medicine is narrative"? Rita Charon coined this concept (2007), which has caught on. This session will present the conceptual tools the author draws on to explain it, taken from contemporary philosophy and literary theory. Healthcare professionals will also be given suggestions on how to act accordingly.

Session 4. The narratives of professionals in the healthcare setting (Instructor: Mr. Pau Miquel) In this session, drawing on the analysis of healthcare professionals' accounts of the death of one of their patients, we will explore whether writing such reflective texts fosters the expression of ethical lessons. We will also examine the potential clinical, professional, and personal effects of establishing a reflective narrative practice at the institutional level. We find this essential because the narrative of what we do sustains us, allows us to persist, and is a way of caring for ourselves.

Session 5. "There is nothing wrong with you" (Instructor: Dr. Mar Rosàs) Patients often feel that the healthcare professionals attending to them do not take them seriously enough. This dismissiveness has multiple negative effects on patients—not only biomedically, but also economically, professionally, and personally. In this session, drawing on the concept of "epistemic injustice," we will examine the roots of the lack of credibility faced by patients with certain conditions that tend to raise suspicion, as well as ways to counteract it.

Session 6. Creative writing workshop for patients and healthcare professionals (Instructor: Mr. Óscar Sotillos) Patients are accustomed to being passive subjects in their own illness. By contrast, few exercises are as therapeutic as telling one's own story. In this session, we will offer creative approaches for healthcare professionals to encourage their patients to put into words and shape the experience of illness and healing from their own perspective.