A Rigorous Mind Meets Her Yielding Body: Intellectual Life and Meaning-Making in Wit
Authors: Ellen A. Foster
Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine (2007)

Perspectives4 September 2007A Rigorous Mind Meets Her Yielding Body: Intellectual Life and Meaning-Making in WitEllen A. Foster, PhDEllen A. Foster, PhDFrom Clarion University–Venango Campus, Oil City, PA 16301.Search for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-147-5-200709040-00024 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail Patients, their family and friends, and medical professionals often consider the experiences of illness (and particularly terminal illness) as primarily physical, emotional, and spiritual. This is no doubt true, but for at least some segment of the patient population, their intellects, or intellectual lives, offer ways to frame and confront the complexity of the experiences of illness and dying, to consider the meaning of their lives, and to remember that they are more than their diseases. For these patients, the habits of the life of the mind, a life centered on gaining and sharing knowledge, are familiar and comfortable: They ...References1. Gould SJ. The median isn't the message. Discover. 1985; June: 40-42. Reprinted by: Steve Dunn's Cancer Guide. Steve Dunn; 2004. Accessed at cancerguide.org/median_not_msg.html on 12 July 2007. Google Scholar2. Ehrenreich B. Welcome to Cancerland: a mammogram leads to a cult of pink kitsch. Harper's Magazine. 2001;Nov:43-53. Google Scholar3. Nichols M, dir. Wit [DVD]. HBO Home Video; 2001. Google Scholar4. Sykes JD. Wit, pride and the resurrection: Margaret Edson's play and John Donne's poetry. Renascence. 2003;55:163-74. CrossrefGoogle Scholar5. Booth W. The ethics of medicine, as revealed in literature.. In: Charon R, Montello M, eds. Stories Matter: The Role of Narrative in Medical Ethics. New York: Routledge; 2002:10-20. Google Scholar6. Rosenblum N. Review of Wit. Lesbian News. April 2001:37. Google Scholar7. Lee V, Cohen SR, Edgar L, Laizner AM, Gagnon AJ. Meaning-making and psychological adjustment to cancer: development of an intervention and pilot results. Oncol Nurs Forum. 2006;33:291-302. [PMID: 16518445] CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar8. Ueno K, Kaneko F, Okamura H. Factors associated with the self-efficacy of terminally ill cancer patients. J Hospice Palliative Nurs. 2006;8:147-54. CrossrefGoogle Scholar Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAffiliations: From Clarion University–Venango Campus, Oil City, PA 16301.Note: An earlier version of this paper was delivered at The Patient: An International Symposium, co-hosted by Bucknell University and the Geisinger Medical System, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, in October 2006.Acknowledgments: The author thanks the discussants at The Patient: An International Symposium for their encouraging responses, which benefitted the further refinement of my ideas regarding Wit and meaning-making.Corresponding Author: Ellen A. Foster, PhD, Department of English, Clarion University–Venango Campus, 1801 West First Street, Oil City, PA 16301. PreviousarticleNextarticle Advertisement FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Metrics Cited byPedagogy and the Art of Death: Reparative Readings of Death and Dying in Margaret Edson’s Wit“It Is Not Wit, It Is Truth:” Transcending the Narrative Bounds of Professional and Personal Identity in Life and in Art 4 September 2007Volume 147, Issue 5Page: 353-356KeywordsBehaviorCancer treatmentChemotherapyEmotionsFearGamesLibrariesMortalityNursesOvarian cancer ePublished: 4 September 2007 Issue Published: 4 September 2007 Copyright & PermissionsCopyright © 2007 by American College of Physicians. All Rights Reserved.PDF downloadLoading ...