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This paper addresses the prominent tension in China’s healthcare system between the “accelerated efficiency of diagnosis and treatment” and the “diminished humanistic care.” By integrating the practical discrepancies and the existing challenges encountered in the local promotion of Narrative Medicine (NM) and the Solution-Focused Approach (SFA), it systematically delineates their theoretical kernels, clinical application cases, and development bottlenecks, and conducts an in-depth analysis of their complementary values in the domains of “humanistic meaning construction” and “efficient problem-solving.” Meanwhile, tackling key challenges including the inadequate cultural adaptation of Western theories to the local context, excessive operational workload burden on healthcare professionals, and fragmented institutional development, this paper explores and proposes a localized pathway featuring the integration of concepts in parallel with implementation in practice, aiming to provide theoretical support and pragmatic, implementable strategies for optimizing the quality of doctor-patient communication, alleviating occupational burnout among healthcare professionals, and establishing a medical humanistic practice system in line with the actual situation of China’s healthcare system – thereby facilitating the harmonious integration of medical science and humanism under the “Healthy China” Initiative.

Objectives To explore the structural homology between Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Chinese philosophical traditions, addressing the challenge of cultural adaptation in psychotherapy. Methods We propose a tripartite philosophical framework to analyze the systemic alignment between DBT principles and Chinese wisdom. Specifically, we examine how Daoism establishes the ontology of dialectical change, Confucianism provides the ethical praxis of dynamic balance, and Buddhism contributes the epistemology of non-dual awareness. Results The analysis reveals that traditional cultural practices – specifically poetic narratives, calligraphy, and guqin music – function as ambient therapy. These practices operationalize the philosophical framework into embodied mechanisms of cognitive reframing, visuospatial attention, and physiological entrainment, mirroring DBT skills in a culturally syntonic manner. Conclusions Rather than viewing Chinese culture merely as a context for adaptation, this study suggests it functions as a comprehensive clinical ecosystem. The tripartite framework offers a robust theoretical basis for integrating indigenous healing mechanisms with modern evidence-based treatments.

This article explores how colonial medicine in Peshawar during British rule became a tangible and transformative force embedded in everyday life through institutional structures, local interactions, and socio-cultural negotiations. Situated within the broader historical and geopolitical dynamics of the British Empire in South Asia, colonial health initiatives were not merely about healing but also about reinforcing imperial control. Medical policies materialized in the form of hospitals, dispensaries, and public health laws, which were strategically designed to serve colonial interests while projecting humanitarian intent. The article examines how these medical interventions were translated into visible and experiential forms – through missionary hospitals, sanitary campaigns, vaccination drives, and the mobilization of indigenous healers and midwives – creating an environment where Western biomedicine coexisted with, contested, and gradually integrated into local systems of knowledge and belief. Special attention is given to how these institutions negotiated gender norms, religious anxieties, and professional resistance, thereby constructing a new medical landscape. Drawing on archival records, official correspondence, and statistical data from the late 19th to mid-20th century, the study reveals how colonial medical infrastructure shaped everyday life in Peshawar and redefined the material and ideological contours of health, healing, and governance.

In Hunza, Gilgit-Baltistan, Bitans (shamans) continue to treat illnesses that biomedicine may diagnose yet appealingly leaves experientially unresolved: recurrent miscarriage, spirit possession, infant mortality, and mental condition often attributed to nazar (evil eye), jinn (supernatural beings), or pari (fairies). Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Karimabad and surrounding villages of Hunza valley, we focus on lay perceptions of Bitans and the underlying reasons local people still consult them alongside biomedical hospital services. The findings reveal a hierarchical medical pluralism in which these spiritual healers occupy an indispensable niche for morally and metaphysically attributed illnesses. Through embodied rituals, amulets, herbal remedies, and verbal healing, Bitans reconfigure domestic spaces into sites of healing and restore coherence to disrupted life stories. Their practice is also shaped by gender, generational expectations, and the local moral economy of spiritual work. These results suggest that spiritual healing and intuition play a vital role in the Hunza valley to address various dimensions of illnesses – moral, relational, and existential – that biomedicine alone cannot resolve.

In Singapore, a multi-ethnic city-state in Southeast Asia, stigma against people with mental health conditions is sadly common; patients are often unfairly associated with the threat of violence, criminality, and danger. Over the past two decades, serial dramas in Singapore have included storylines that revolve around mental illness, yet problematic depictions are rife. Since stigma discourages disclosure of mental health conditions, without professional training or the intervention of educational campaigns, serial television dramas may serve as the layperson’s main source of knowledge, regardless of the lived experience of patients and practitioners. In response, our diverse, interdisciplinary team critically analysed free-to-air television dramas broadcast over the last 20 years in the four official languages of Singapore – English, Mandarin Chinese, Bahasa Melayu, and Tamil – with particular attention paid to the pervasive association of violence and criminality with mental health conditions. This article details the complex ways in which these narratives construct images of people with mental health conditions that risk reinforcing fear and avoidance rather than empathy and understanding.

Objectives This study systematically reviewed publications on natural language processing and large language models in the field of physician–patient relationships using bibliometric methods, and analyzed publication trends, current research status, and thematic evolution. Methods Publications were selected from the PubMed database. Bibliometric research was conducted using CiteSpace, including keyword co-occurrence and clustering, timeline analysis, and keyword burst analysis. Results A total of 128 publications were included. Literature fluctuated at a low level before 2019, but increased markedly following the release of ChatGPT, peaking in 2024. Keyword co-occurrence and clustering identified seven core thematic categories: artificial intelligence, natural language processing, large language models, patient education, clinical decision-making, social media, care experience, and e-Health. Timeline analysis indicated a recent shift toward shared decision-making and emotional support. Keyword burst analysis further revealed that large language models, clinical decision support, and generative AI emerged as prominent topics after 2024. Conclusions The rise of large language models has accelerated research in the physician–patient relationship domain, shifting research hotspots toward human-centered scenarios, particularly in areas such as patient experience, clinical decision support, and e-Health.

This article places Ernest Hemingway’s Indian Camp alongside Su Shi’s Ding Feng Bo to examine how different structures of silence shape clinical meaning. Indian Camp presents an avoidant silence characterized by a “cannot speak” structure, expressed through the collapse of language, relational alienation, and repression produced by institutional norms, gender expectations, and Hemingway’s iceberg aesthetic. In contrast, Ding Feng B o offers a cultivated silence grounded in a deliberate “will not speak” stance, marked by restraint and self-regulation associated with li (礼) , yi (义), and he (和). Together, the texts highlight that silence may signal emotional overload or serve as a psychological and ethical resource in clinical care. This comparison underscores the importance of recognizing multiple forms of silence as a clinical competence and suggests that cultivated silence can help Western medicine better balance truthful disclosure with the sustaining of hope.

In an era of medical digitization, tacit knowledge – experiential, context-dependent knowing central to humanistic care – faces marginalization despite technological advances. Drawing on Michael Polanyi’s theory, this paper advocates for a “Professional–Care Recipient Interactionism” framework, which transcends the doctor-patient dyad by integrating epistemic pluralism, bidirectional power dynamics, and structural contextualization. This framework safeguards medical practice integrity by valuing tacit knowledge from both professionals and care recipients, bridging micro-interactions with macro structures to foster equitable, dignity-affirming care. Embedding tacit knowledge within this framework is essential to ensure technology serves, not replaces, medicine’s humanistic core.

While psychiatry and clinical psychology typically employ standardised instruments to assess personality traits and mental diseases, medical humanities encompass a broader spectrum that also includes philosophical, anthropological and cultural perspectives. The article examines the epistemological values of medical sciences and cinematic arts, proposing a dual model for a holistic understanding of the individual. By comparing scientific and cinematic approaches, three critical dichotomies are identified: (i) pathology and personality clusters vs. diversity, (ii) generalisation vs. precision, and (iii) categorisation vs. in-depth exploration. Regarding the epistemological potential of film, the following are investigated: (a) intrinsically holistic interpretation, (b) complex interdependencies between individuals and living-spaces, (c) gradations and dynamics of mental features, (d) uniqueness and authenticity of the self, and (e) the mystery behind existential actualisation. Finally, complementary approaches based on human and artificial intelligence are proposed to assess personalities and mental health conditions.

Objectives Empathy in medical education reflects both stable dispositional tendencies and context-dependent emotional responses. While prior research has documented the Identifiable Victim Effect in prosocial decision-making, little is known about whether patient identifiability modulates empathy responses within medical professional training contexts. Methods A total of 281 medical students were randomly assigned to read either an identifiable or non-identifiable patient version of a brief disease narrative. Participants then completed the Empathy Response Scale and Interpersonal Reactivity Index. Independent samples t -tests and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were conducted to examine the effect of patient identifiability while controlling for dispositional empathy. Differences between undergraduate and graduate students were further explored. Results Narratives featuring identifiable patients elicited significantly higher empathy responses than non-identifiable narratives ( t =−2.0100, p=0.0450). This effect remained significant after controlling for dispositional empathy, indicating that identifiability exerts an independent contextual influence beyond stable empathic traits. Moreover, the identifiable patient effect was observed among graduate students but not undergraduates, suggesting that training stage may moderate responsiveness to narrative cues. Conclusions The findings support a dynamic model of empathy in which situational narrative features interact with dispositional capacity to shape empathic engagement. Patient identifiability functions as a contextual empathy activator in medical education settings, highlighting the importance of narrative design in professional training.

Objectives This report aims to explore the application and value of narrative medicine as a clinical intervention in the care of severe burn patients. Case presentation A female patient with severe burns refused all treatments after her vital signs stabilized. The medical staff applied narrative medicine interventions to help her express her fears of trauma, uncertainties about treatment, emotions toward her family, as well as her feelings and reflections on future life. The intervention of narrative medicine facilitated her transition from initial refuse to accept treatments to actively participating in treatments with family support. Eventually, she was discharged from the hospital and realized her own value. Conclusions This case documents how narrative medicine was specifically carried out for a patient with severe burns. It provides reference for applying narrative medicine in clinical practice.

This article explores how cultures construct notions of wellbeing through the lens of musicking, drawing on a lifetime of interdisciplinary research, practice, and reflection. It examines how Western modernity’s privileging of rationalism, individuality, and detachment has marginalised forms of knowledge, community practices, and musical experiences that historically and geographically lay/lie at the heart of healing. Integrating themes from Constructing Musical Healing with more recent research on narrative medicine, community musicking, and the polarities model of the self, the paper proposes a dynamic understanding of health as balancing – an ongoing negotiation of personal, social, embodied, and transcendent dimensions of human life. Through myths, case studies, personal narrative, and analysis of diverse musical traditions, the article develops a comprehensive account of musicking as a site of rebalancing. It addresses community choirs, guided imagery, improvisation, shamanic drumming, singing bowls, grief practices, and other therapeutic modalities. It argues that wellbeing is better understood as a process than a product; that narrative is more suited to its representation than numerical evidence; and that music, as respectful encounter, offers a unique medium for the restoration of wholeness in fractured societies.

Objectives This article examines the notion of well-being or “happiness” – a notion articulated by Aristotle as eudaimonia and in ancient China as le (乐) – and it does so as a way of understanding the intersection of the work of the humanities and that of healthcare. Methods Its method is to interrogate the conception of experience . In both the clinic and in the humanities, engagements with experience are routed, so to speak, through inference (particularly as analyzed by C. S. Peirce), the deployment of practical reasoning in relation to experience. To be experienced is to be situated in the world, most usually by touch: at some particular place, which always entails some future place, where one is and where one is going to be. “Being experienced,” Hans-Georg Gadamer has argued, “does not mean that one now knows something once and for all . . .; rather, one becomes more open to new experiences”. Results If this is so, then the practical worldly work of what Stephen Jay Gould calls “the triumph of homology” – at the heart of the analogical thinking of the humanities – complements biomedical science in articulating the goals of healthcare: good health and well-being, for individuals and our communities. Conclusions A significant aspect of clinical healthcare is the inferential comprehension of experience pursued by the humanities.