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Cognitive Conversations #3 Narrative Medicine: On Writing the Mind & Body

‘Narrative Medicine: On Writing the Mind and Body’ is the third episode in Cognitive Conversations, a series where we tackle the big questions in art and science. Come along for this deep dive on narrative medicine and writing mind and body with three fascinating storytellers… 

Writing through the body, about life and death, illness and everything in-between is what connects people and allows us to see humanity anew. Narrative Medicine is a relatively recent concept and clinical practice that was developed out of Columbia University in the early 2000s and is now being funnelled into medical degrees around the world, including the University of Melbourne.

In this episode, Dr Fiona Reilly takes us through the fundamentals of what Narrative Medicine is, and what it looks like in practice, describing the tremendous work she and colleague Dr Mariam Tokhi are doing at the forefront of delivering the country’s first dedicated narrative medicine program.  

In her stunning debut memoir Breath, award-winning author Carly-Jay Metcalfe writes candidly about her first-hand experience navigating the medical system before, and since, her life-giving double lung transplant at 21. Carly shares her experiences of care in a medical setting, and where she sees narrative medicine fitting into this picture, along with her lifelong love of poetry (‘the classics like Ted Hughes, WH Auden, Walt Whitman’), which she’s read to countless patients in her role as a ‘Chaplain for Heathens’. These experiences have formed Carly’s staunch philosophy on life and, indeed, on dying and death. Carly has plumbed the depths of bodily and spiritual endurance to bring Breath to life, an experience she says was ‘anything but cathartic’. 

Dr Melissa Dickson enriches the discussion with her expertise on the history of medicine, and enduring love for Victorian-era science, art and literature. A self-confessed ‘Victorianist’ at heart, Melissa draws on the observations of sound theorist and historian Jonathan Sterne to consider the symbol of the stethoscope as a ubiquitous icon of the medical profession that has prevailed in the postmodern era, the idea of listening to the patient’s voice, versus the sounds their body makes, and how medical practice and patient care has evolved in the decades since the reign of the Victorians and their ‘lack of disciplinary boundaries’. 

Meet our guests

Dr. Fiona Reilly is a senior paediatric emergency physician at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, with extensive experience in paediatric trauma and critical care. Fiona is a Narrative Medicine practitioner and teacher, lecturing in Australia's first Narrative Medicine program at UniMelb. She is completing her PhD in Narrative Medicine and creative writing. 

Connect with Fiona on LinkedIn | Find out more about Narrative Medicine.

Dr Melissa Dickson is a Senior Lecturer in English Literature in the School of Communication and Arts at The University of Queensland. Previously, she taught Victorian Literature at the University of Birmingham, UK and was a Postdoctoral Researcher on ‘The Diseases of Modern Life: Nineteenth-Century Perspective’. Melissa’s research focuses on the relationships between Victorian literature, science, medicine, and material culture, and she has published widely. 

Connect with Melissa on X | View Melissa's Researcher profile.

Carly-Jay Metcalfe is a Queensland-based writer. Her debut memoir Breath was published in 2024 by UQP and her work has been published in Kill Your Darlings, The Guardian and TEXT Journal. Carly-Jay lives with cystic fibrosis, and has faced a double lung transplant, a rare cancer and other huge medical challenges. She is a passionate advocate for organ donation and for more honest conversations around dying and death.

Connect with Carly-Jay on Instagram, Facebook, X or LinkedIn, and find out more about her award-winning debut memoir, Breath (UQP, 2024).

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We’ll be back with another episode soon, and more Cognitive Conversations to come!

This series is hosted and produced by Bianca Millroy, an emerging science writer and editor based in Meanjin (Brisbane).

We acknowledge the Jaegara/Yugara and Turrbal People, Traditional Owners of the land on which this episode was created, and the unceded lands on which our guests live and continue vital cultural traditions such as scientific discovery and storytelling.