Graphic Medicine: pictures worth a thousand words

Graphic novels continue to hit bookstore shelves and bestseller lists in increasing numbers. Once seen primarily as the domain of children and adolescents, they are experiencing steep growth curves in popularity across all age demographics. From coming-of-age stories to accounts of the Holocaust, gender journeys, and political commentary, graphic memoirs and novels offer shortcuts to understanding what is distant and often difficult to grasp.

With a similar blending of powerful comic visuals and an economy of words, graphic medicine is a compelling form of narrative practice that delivers us into the worlds of those dealing with illness, disability, caregiving, and health care. Graphic medicine uses comics to tell personal stories of illness and health (NLM, 2018). They are used to support public health efforts by informing populations about prevention and risks, and by patients and providers to share experiences aimed at improving health care. These works help demystify trauma and complex physical and emotional change by using imagery and symbolism to express experiences that are sometimes impossible to put into words.

In longer form, graphic medicine—through novels, memoirs, and how-to guides—helps individuals connect with family, friends, providers and the broader community, offering a window into abstract medical conditions and concepts that can be emotionally and intellectually challenging to grasp.

Especially when grappling with disease complexity, trauma, or gender-related issues, pictures connect us in an intimate way that allow the viewer to gaze at length without fear of being called out for staring. Comics usher us in through an alternative aesthetic power portal that traditional word based medical texts, stories, and memoir sometimes lack. The turn of a smile, the angst of feeling different, the joy of acceptance—all come to vivid life in the strokes of a pen and brush.
 
Here are a few graphic novels and memoirs that have particularly impacted me:

"Fun Home" by Alison Bechdel: A beautifully rendered coming-of-age novel about a girl and her closeted gay father. While I had no direct connection with Bechdel's story, the universality of being an adolescent and dealing with evolving parent-child relationships hit home. 

"Mom’s Cancer" by Brian Fies: A story about a son and his family's journey through his mother's lung cancer diagnosis and treatment. Fies helped me understand that much of what I was feeling when my dad was living with with cancer- the fear, the sadness, and the anger is a shared experience for children dealing with a sick parent. 

"Parkinson’s: My Degeneration" by Peter Dunlap-Shohl: My uncle battled Parkinson's Disease for over 20 years. I was a young adult at the time he was first diagnosed. I couldn't understand how his world was increasingly swallowed by this insidious creeping, and degenerative disease- Dunlop-Shohl put it all into perspective. He is also very funny!

We’d love to hear what graphic medicine works, or novels have moved you! Please forward them to info@narrativemindworks.org, or post them to the member feed.

-Lauren Manning

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Check out the Graphic Medicine syllabus repository at: https://www.graphicmedicine.org/

"As the field of Graphic Medicine has developed and grown, there has been a proliferation of courses related to comics and medicine being taught to undergraduate, graduate, and professional students around the world. GMIC is committed to bringing ideas and people together through sharing and collaboration, and with this in mind, we extended an invitation to teachers of graphic medicine and asked them to share their syllabi publicly, so that others could benefit from their collective wisdom and experience."

 From: Michael Green, MD, MS
 Co-Chair, Graphic Medicine International Collective (GMIC)

 

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