Humanistic anatomy: a new program for an old discipline

Human anatomy education, a key component in all medical and many science curricula, is in the midst of one of the greatest transformations in its long and complex history. One of the main features of this transformation is a more human and more humanistic approach to the learning and teaching of anatomy. While anatomists have been humanizing their discipline in various ways in recent years, their ideas and activities have not been synthesised and conceptualised as a coherent whole. The aim of this book is to provide this long overdue synthesis, under the newly proposed concept of "humanistic anatomy". In addition, the book makes suggestions as to how the program to humanize anatomy should be further developed. It is hoped that this book will initiate more expansive dialogue among scholars and facilitate further development of strategies to humanize anatomy and, through anatomy - science, medicine and the world we live in.