Internationally, there is an increasing awareness of the need to include humanities in the medical curriculum. The Medical Humanities Group at the University College of Medical Sciences, Delhi, organised a series of events to explore this area. This paper describes our experience with Augusto Boal's "Theatre of the Oppressed" (TO). Twenty-six participants attended a 2-day workshop culminating in a "forum theatre", in which the spectators are transformed from passive observers to active participants or spect-actors. The participants' responses to our workshop indicate that TO provides a multitude of experiences and addresses a wide range of learning domains. TO challenges the senses and offers a promising and enjoyable option for learning medical humanities.
Religion is an abstract concept encompassing specific set of organized beliefs and practices, usually shared by a community or group, whereas spirituality is more of an individual practice dealing with having a sense of peace and purpose. Religion and psychiatric illness too share a complex relationship and intent for religious conversions pose a diagnostic dilemma in many cases. This relationship is further being influenced by easy access to social media and excessive smartphone use in the contemporary world. Here, we discuss two cases of young males who presented to us with intense desire to change their religion (interest generated after watching YouTube videos and listening to speeches on the smartphone), consequently leading to interpersonal problems and psychopathology. The management approach highlights the need to identify the intent and knowledge for religious change, differentiate individual preferences from that of the family/society, avoiding misdiagnosis and focusing on symptom resolution and improving functionality.
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