Artistic representations of infectious disease

ABSTRACT

Artistic representations of disease are widespread yet largely ignored in health psychology research. In this paper we use two infectious diseases, tuberculosis and the plague, as tracers to study how infectious diseases are represented in novels, films, paintings, and songs. They were represented especially in terms of their causes and seriousness. Studying how diseases are represented in various art forms extends our understanding of how they are socially constructed. This knowledge can also be incorporated into the training of health care providers to sensitize them to issues in patient care.

KEYWORDS:

• Infectious disease
• novels
• films
• paintings
• songs

Acknowledgments

We are grateful for the comments of the reviewer of an earlier version of the manuscript: the comments helped us putting our thoughts on paper more clearly.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.