Why should speech-language pathologists read graphic novels? A commentary on humanities as a pathway to improving patient-centred care

Abstract

Like all who work in medical or allied health professions, speech-language pathologists would benefit from supplementing their learning with humanities education, as it can help to improve diagnostic skills and to develop empathy. Graphic novels on illness and disease, conceived of by those in the medical humanities as “graphic medicine,” have an appeal for their brevity and association with humour, and for their ability to express complex thoughts and feelings through a medium that is both visual and literary. As such, they serve as an ideal resource for deepening one’s understanding of how disorders and diseases are experienced by patients and their caregivers and for helping student clinicians, therapists, and researchers recognize their shared humanity with patients and study participants. In this article, I expand on these ideas and, in order to demonstrate the benefit of closely reading graphic novels from a speech-pathology perspective, I offer my own analysis of Tangles: A Story of Alzheimer’s, My Mother, and Me by Sarah Leavitt (2012).