Isabella Marcinski-Michel¹, Christian Hißnauer², Sonja Deppe³, Claudia Wiesemann⁴

^{1 Institute} of History of Medicine and Medical Ethics, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin

^{2 Institute} for German Literature, Humboldt University of Berlin

^{3 Division} of Medical Ethics, Department of Health Services Research, University of Oldenburg

^{4 Institute} for Ethics and History of Medicine, University Medical Centre Göttingen

Time plays a central role in medicine and healthcare. Relevant processes such as illness and recovery are embedded within the individual’s limited and ever-elapsing lifespan. Medical and nursing interventions are often time-critical, for example in intensive care or emergency medicine. Furthermore, key aspects of healthcare are governed by time constraints, such as treatment cycles in reproductive medicine or waiting lists in transplant medicine.

However, time is often experienced, assessed and prioritised very differently by the people involved and affected. Thus, whilst the sequence of events during a medical emergency may appear rapid and hectic when viewed from the outside, from the perspective of the person affected it may simultaneously drag on agonisingly. Couples who desperately wish to have children are likely to view a growing number of unsuccessful IVF treatments differently from the specialists treating them. These discrepancies also have ethical implications: In the discussion about infection control measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, it was repeatedly suggested that the value placed on life spent in isolation or under lockdown – or even at risk as a result of triage measures – varies depending on the stage of life the individuals concerned are at.

Such discrepancies are not easily grasped in theoretical terms. A scientific perspective geared towards objectivity frequently encounters linguistic and conceptual limits in the face of the inescapably subjective and existential nature of the experience of time. By contrast, literary and artistic approaches – particularly in art forms that are especially sensitive to the passage of time, such as film and narrative literature – are credited with having a special potential for exploring, shaping and conveying subjective experiences of time. In this context, the philosopher Odo Marquard speaks, for example, of an artistically opened-up possibility for experiences of multitemporality.

The aim of the workshop is to explore and harness this potential of literature and film for multitemporality in order to investigate the ethical significance of different experiences of time in medicine and healthcare. By examining three examples from different fields of medical practice and art forms (literature – graphic novel – film), the workshop seeks to reconstruct and reflect ethically on various forms of the experience of time in medical contexts. The aim is to identify and articulate theoretical, methodological and didactic perspectives of medical ethics grounded in narrative approaches and the medical humanities.

Programme:

1. (15 minutes) Introduction and input on the topic ‘The Ethics of Multitemporality’ in medicine and healthcare. In addition, the conceptual and theoretical analytical tools from the phenomenology of the experience of time, as well as approaches from literary and media studies for the narrative analysis of phenomena of temporality, will be briefly outlined. These will be applied in Part 2.

2. (45 minutes) Participants will be divided into three breakout groups, in each of which a discussion will take place on various examples from medical practice, literary and cinematic representations, and modes of the experience of time, using the conceptual and theoretical analytical tools and narratological approaches introduced earlier.

1. Reading list: ‘Der alte König in seinem Exil’ (2012) by Arno Geiger on Alzheimer’s
2. Graphic novel: ‘Andere Umstände’ (2022) by Julia Zejn on abortion
3. Film: “Rock my heart” (2017) by Hanno Olderdissen on a congenital heart condition

In the breakout groups, participants will explore how the different experiences of time are portrayed in the literary and cinematic examples. How are the depicted experience of time and the medium interrelated? What ethical implications might this have for medicine and healthcare? Each session will begin with a joint viewing or reading of film and text excerpts.

3. (30 minutes) Finally, there will be a consolidation, presentation and discussion of the group work. Building on the ethics of multitemporality introduced at the start, the results of the breakout groups will be reflected upon with regard to the ethical significance of different experiences of time in medicine and healthcare. The aim of the workshop is to develop a theoretical, methodological and didactic conceptual framework for medical ethics grounded in narrative approaches and the medical humanities.