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The teenage years dominate popular culture, and teenagers and their healthcare are a concern in healthcare systems. Transition planning, concerns about the strengths of services at this critical developmental period, and the advent of independent identities as teenagers transition to adult services are all points of concern.

These concerns are reflected in many aspects of art and culture relating to teen health. This module brings together experts from medicine, philosophy and literary and cultural studies to consider the relationships between medicine, illness, health and society. Each topic will be discussed from a clinical perspective and from a humanities angle, inviting students to consider the ways in which clinical practice and medical science inflect cultural understanding, and vice versa. Focusing on the cultural dimensions of health and healthcare, this exciting module primarily examines the representations of illness and adolescence in literature and philosophy and relates these to medicine and the experience of illness in adolescence. Bringing together experts in child and adolescent psychiatry, medicine, philosophies of vulnerability and literary representations of the body and the self, we invite students to consider the deep connections between medicine, literary culture and philosophy. This module is a collaboration between the Schools of English, Drama and Film, Medicine< Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Philosophy, along withthe Centre for Ethics in Public Life, and will introduce students to key concepts in those disciplines. The module is grounded in the value of interdisciplinary and interprofessional collaboration, and asks students to approach new ideas with an open mind.