Pharmaceutical Humanities and Narrative Pharmacy: An Emerging New Concept in Pharmacy
The complexity of our life experiences and the rapid progress in science and technology clearly necessitate reflections from the humanities. The ever-growing intersection between science and society fosters the emergence of novel interdisciplinary fields of research. During the past decade, Medical...
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MDPI AG
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Pharmaceuticals |
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| author | Mita Banerjee Thomas Efferth |
| author_facet | Mita Banerjee Thomas Efferth |
| author_sort | Mita Banerjee |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The complexity of our life experiences and the rapid progress in science and technology clearly necessitate reflections from the humanities. The ever-growing intersection between science and society fosters the emergence of novel interdisciplinary fields of research. During the past decade, Medical Humanities arose to meet the need to unravel hidden information beyond technology-driven and fact-based medicine. In the present paper, we put forward the hypothesis that there is a similar requirement to develop Pharmaceutical Humanities as an academic discipline within pharmacy and pharmaceutical biology. Based on Thomas Kuhn’s epistemological theory on the structure of scientific revolutions, one may argue that a paradigm change for Pharmaceutical Humanities might open new levels of insight. Many complex diseases (e.g., cancer, neurological diseases, and mental disorders) remain uncurable for many patients by current pharmacotherapies, and the old beaten paths in our therapeutic thinking may at least partly have to be left behind. By taking examples from Pharmaceutical Biology, we attempt to illustrate that the transdisciplinary dialogue with the humanities is fertile ground not only for enlarging our understanding of disease-related conditions but also for exploring new ways of combatting diseases. In this context, we discuss aspects related to traditional herbal medicine, fair access and benefit sharing of indigenous knowledge about medicinal plants, post-traumatic stress syndrome, the opioid crisis, stress myocardiopathy (broken heart syndrome), and global environmental pollution with microplastics. We also explore possibilities for a narrative turn in pharmacy. The urgent need for inter- and transdisciplinary solutions to pressing health-related problems in our society may create a scholarly atmosphere for the establishment of Pharmaceutical Humanities as a fruitful terrain to respond to the current demands of both science and society. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-cce48b7c6b2745b6b02a36c04e95bff1 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1424-8247 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Pharmaceuticals |
| spelling | doaj-art-cce48b7c6b2745b6b02a36c04e95bff12025-01-24T13:45:10ZengMDPI AGPharmaceuticals1424-82472025-01-011814810.3390/ph18010048Pharmaceutical Humanities and Narrative Pharmacy: An Emerging New Concept in PharmacyMita Banerjee0Thomas Efferth1Department of English and Linguistics, Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies, Johannes Gutenberg University, Jakob Welder Weg 20, 55128 Mainz, GermanyDepartment of Pharmaceutical Biology, Institute of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences, Johannes Gutenberg University, Staudinger Weg 5, 55128 Mainz, GermanyThe complexity of our life experiences and the rapid progress in science and technology clearly necessitate reflections from the humanities. The ever-growing intersection between science and society fosters the emergence of novel interdisciplinary fields of research. During the past decade, Medical Humanities arose to meet the need to unravel hidden information beyond technology-driven and fact-based medicine. In the present paper, we put forward the hypothesis that there is a similar requirement to develop Pharmaceutical Humanities as an academic discipline within pharmacy and pharmaceutical biology. Based on Thomas Kuhn’s epistemological theory on the structure of scientific revolutions, one may argue that a paradigm change for Pharmaceutical Humanities might open new levels of insight. Many complex diseases (e.g., cancer, neurological diseases, and mental disorders) remain uncurable for many patients by current pharmacotherapies, and the old beaten paths in our therapeutic thinking may at least partly have to be left behind. By taking examples from Pharmaceutical Biology, we attempt to illustrate that the transdisciplinary dialogue with the humanities is fertile ground not only for enlarging our understanding of disease-related conditions but also for exploring new ways of combatting diseases. In this context, we discuss aspects related to traditional herbal medicine, fair access and benefit sharing of indigenous knowledge about medicinal plants, post-traumatic stress syndrome, the opioid crisis, stress myocardiopathy (broken heart syndrome), and global environmental pollution with microplastics. We also explore possibilities for a narrative turn in pharmacy. The urgent need for inter- and transdisciplinary solutions to pressing health-related problems in our society may create a scholarly atmosphere for the establishment of Pharmaceutical Humanities as a fruitful terrain to respond to the current demands of both science and society.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8247/18/1/48bioethicsethicsglobal threatsinterdisciplinary researchnatural productssustainability |
| spellingShingle | Mita Banerjee Thomas Efferth Pharmaceutical Humanities and Narrative Pharmacy: An Emerging New Concept in Pharmacy Pharmaceuticals bioethics ethics global threats interdisciplinary research natural products sustainability |
| title | Pharmaceutical Humanities and Narrative Pharmacy: An Emerging New Concept in Pharmacy |
| title_full | Pharmaceutical Humanities and Narrative Pharmacy: An Emerging New Concept in Pharmacy |
| title_fullStr | Pharmaceutical Humanities and Narrative Pharmacy: An Emerging New Concept in Pharmacy |
| title_full_unstemmed | Pharmaceutical Humanities and Narrative Pharmacy: An Emerging New Concept in Pharmacy |
| title_short | Pharmaceutical Humanities and Narrative Pharmacy: An Emerging New Concept in Pharmacy |
| title_sort | pharmaceutical humanities and narrative pharmacy an emerging new concept in pharmacy |
| topic | bioethics ethics global threats interdisciplinary research natural products sustainability |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8247/18/1/48 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mitabanerjee pharmaceuticalhumanitiesandnarrativepharmacyanemergingnewconceptinpharmacy AT thomasefferth pharmaceuticalhumanitiesandnarrativepharmacyanemergingnewconceptinpharmacy |