Clinical Approaches to Drama: “Cripple Billy” in Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple of Inishmaan

Abstract

There has been an increasing tendency among practicing physicians and health care professionals to pay a close attention to the study of literature and literary narrative. They have started to investigate how the study of literature could help them with skills such as attentive listening, responsive engagement and critical thinking. There has been an important cooperation between the literary scholars and the medical professionals in the field of literature and medicine. The cooperation has highlighted the power of literary texts that help the medical and pre- medical students to develop practical skills. Literature—both in discussion and in writing—can instill habits of attention and empathy which are of immense significance for clinical encounters where the relationship between the patients and the healthcare professionals is quite pivotal. Furthermore, cognitive psychology has realized that the study of literature can foster stronger empathetic responses to patients’ needs. Literature helps in finding ways in which one can garner strong empathic response in order to better understand the nature of their patients. The insight gained by literature on the human nature enables the medical student to perform their jobs in a much better and more aware way. This also raises the standard of their performance. In the medical study and training, examining experiences of illness through both presentation and content such as is found within literature develops the professional skills required for communication, ethical responses and accurate diagnoses. This paper will explore the benefits to patient-physician interactions of such presentation and content as can be read or enacted within The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh.