"Literature raises important questions about people's needs, values and expectations—all important elements in a physician's practice." – Dr. Anna Fels
A few years ago, Dr. Kou Qin, now a postdoc at Weill Cornell, but then a Ph.D. candidate in pharmacology at the Medical College of Georgia, started reading bestselling author Jonathan Franzen's novel "Freedom," but put it down halfway through. It was too emotionally dense, he said, and he had to focus on his thesis.
But after hearing Mr. Franzen speak Tuesday evening at Weill Cornell, as part of the Medical College's "Readers and Writers" series, Dr. Qin said he was inspired to finish the book.
"It's not just fact or data," he said of "Freedom" — and of literature in general. "It's about emotion, society, relationships, love."
In an hour-long presentation in the Weill Auditorium, Mr. Franzen read his essay "I Just Called to Say I Love You," published in 2008 in MIT's magazine Technology Review, and fielded questions from the audience.
Dr. Anna Fels, clinical associate professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell, established the Readers and Writers series last fall to broaden medical students' access to humanities through literature — in the vein of the Music and Medicine program that provides Weill Cornell student-musicians rehearsal spaces, performance venues and mentors from partner art institutions. The first reading of the series was from the author Jamaica Kincaid in November.
Dr. Fels also sits on the Medical College's admissions committee, and observes that many applicants have impressive backgrounds in liberal arts — passions they often have to forgo while attending medical school.
"The symposium seemed like a way to sustain this part of their lives and educations," Dr. Fels said. "Literature raises important questions about people's needs, values and expectations — all important elements in a physician's practice."
Mr. Frazen stressed this point in his lecture.
"When I learned my own regular physician is a novel reader and had read the same authors I love, I knew I had someone that I wanted to stay with," he said. "She was thinking not just about the science, but about people. So much about being a good doctor is about the kind of person you are."
Students questioned Mr. Franzen on everything from the likeability of Patty Berglund, one of the main characters in "Freedom," to his work on the television series "The Corrections," based on his first best-selling novel of the same name. Mr. Franzen is writing the HBO series, starring Ewan McGregor, Dianne Wiest and Chris Cooper.
Peter Barish, a second-year medical student who just finished "Freedom," and sits on the Readers and Writers Steering Committee, believes infusing medical school with the humanities is critical to developing well-rounded doctors.
"Any excuse to do something non-medically related is good in my opinion," he said.
Photography by Amelia Panico.