Reading, Listening, and Other Beleaguered Practices in General Psychiatry

Both literature and psychotherapy share-in addition to narrative structure and all that it entails-something less fortunate: an appeal that is often lost upon contemporary audiences and that is forever under pressure from general, medical, and psychiatric cultures that valorize standardization and efficiency. This paper considers a number of aesthetic, moral, and cultural justifications that may be applied to both literature and psychotherapy. The two practices, while obviously distinct in many ways, share a number of core values-autonomy, complexity, curiosity, and patience-that are increasingly fragile and deserving of respect in medical and psychiatric education and practice.