Article / interview
Meeting as a Privilege: Adrianna Beczek on Narrative Medicine in Clinical Practice
A meeting with a patient is a privilege. Conversing with a person in a crisis situation, at a difficult, perhaps most important moment of their life, is a unique experience.
Marta Chojnacka-Kuraś (an expert in the project "Polish Studies in the Face of the Challenges of the Modern World") and Adrianna Beczek discuss narrative medicine in clinical practice, moments of disillusionment with mechanistic medicine, and the narrative approach that reconnects the human body and soul, completing the patient's image.
Adrianna Beczek is a physician and humanist, a graduate of medical studies at Jagiellonian University Medical College, a cultural anthropologist from the Inter-Faculty Individual Humanistic Studies at Jagiellonian University, a teaching assistant at the Department of Medical Communication at the Medical University of Warsaw, currently specializing in psychiatry, involved in research on the methodology of narrative medicine, and a participant in workshops with Rita Charon in Milan.
We also discussed narrative medicine in an episode of the "Engaged Polish Studies" series titled Between Language and Medicine: Marta Chojnacka-Kuraś on Narrative Medicine and Medical Humanities.
Link to the transcript: biuletynpolonistyczny.pl/media/articles/files/2026/3/captions.srt
A new podcast series, "Polish Studies Newsletter’s Meetings," titled "Engaged Polish Studies," is being produced as part of the project "Polish Studies and the Challenges of the Modern World." Funded by the state budget under the Minister of Education and Science's "Science for Society II" program (project number: NdS-II/SP/0264/2024/01).
Project website: https://biuletynpolonistyczny.pl/en/projects/polonistyka-wobec-wyzwan-wspolczesnego-swiata,1851/details
Intro and outro:
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Music by Piotr Lakwaj, read by Aldona Brycka-Jaskierska,
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Visual identity and cover design: Klaudia Węgrzyn.
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Information
Członkini i sekretarz Zespołu Języka w Medycynie Rady Języka Polskiego PAN oraz Polskiego Towarzystwa Komunikacji Medycznej. Należy do Polskiego Towarzystwa Językoznawstwa Kognitywnego. Od 2019 r. współpracuje z Fundacją Języka Polskiego (robi audyty i prowadzi szkolenia z zakresu prostego języka i efektywnej komunikacji), od 2022 r. jest członkinią zarządu FJP.
Udział w projektach:
- od 2024 – Polonistyka wobec wyzwań współczesnego świata
- 2023-2024 – Seed 4EU+ Naming for Othering in a Diversified Europe across Selected European Languages
- 2021-2022 – Choroba w ujęciu semantyki ramowej
- 2016-2018 – SYNAMET – mikrokorpus metafor synestezyjnych. Formalizacja opisu i wypracowanie efektywnych metod analizy metafor w dyskursie
Wybrane publikacje:
- Semantyka bólu we współczesnej polszczyźnie, Wydawnictwa Wydziału Polonistyki UW, Warszawa 2016.
- Medycyna narracyjna. Opowieści o doświadczeniu choroby w perspektywie medycznej i humanistycznej, red. M. Chojnacka-Kuraś, Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Warszawa 2019. https://www.wuw.pl/product-pol-11547-Medycyna-narracyjna-Opowiesci-o-doswiadczeniu-choroby-w-perspektywie-medycznej-i-humanistycznej-EBOOK.html
- Językowe, prawne i dydaktyczne aspekty porozumiewania się z pacjentem, red. M. Kulus, A. Doroszewska, M. Chojnacka-Kuraś, Wydawnictwo PAN, Warszawa 2019. https://publikacje.pan.pl/dlibra/journal/136632
- Komunikacja medyczna – wyzwania i źródła inspiracji, red. A. Doroszewska, M. Chojnacka-Kuraś, A.K. Jankowska, Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Warszawa 2023. https://www.wuw.pl/product-pol-18462-Komunikacja-medyczna-wyzwania-i-zrodla-inspiracji-PDF.html
- Cele i metody kształcenia kompetencji narracyjnej w ujęciu Rity Charon (na przykładzie opowiadania Alice Munro „Wiszący most”), „Teksty Drugie” 1/2021, s. 81-100.
- Wyrażenie „Certyfikat Super HoSpa” i jego rola w kształtowaniu obrazu opieki paliatywnej we współczesnym dyskursie medycznym, „Poradnik Językowy” 8/2021, s. 69-83.
- Kiedy WALKA staje się PODRÓŻĄ. O przeobrażeniach metafor opisujących doświadczenie chorowania z uwzględnieniem typu i fazy choroby, „Prace Filologiczne” LXXIII, 2019, s. 33-48.
See also
Między językiem a medycyną. Marta Chojnacka-Kuraś o medycynie narracyjnej i humanistyce medycznej
The diagnosis lies hidden within the patient's narrative. However, whose voice speaks through it? What is the place of narrative in communication between physicians and medical staff, and between patients and their families? Narrative medicine offers an approach which helps to answer these questions and improve our communication skills. It is playing an increasingly important role in healthcare systems worldwide (at Columbia University, it has already become a separate field of study: https://sps.columbia.edu/academics/masters/narrative-medicine).
"Bibliography of Sources for Science and Society" - invitation to fill out a survey
In the years 2024-2027, the "Polish Studies Facing the Challenges of the Contemporary World" project team will conduct coordinated bibliographic work that aims to create an expert "Bibliography of Sources for Science and Society". Using the resources of the humanities (and Polish studies) has prompted us to bring the issues related to disability studies, narrative medicine, medical humanities, and architectural literary studies closer to society. The thematic collections that we collect to bring these issues closer are created in cooperation between bibliographers and subject experts who provide substantive supervision over the project results and are responsible for the substantive quality of bibliographic collections and collected data.
A different view of the competencies of a Polish studies scholar
For many years now, we've been told that the world is rushing and change is inevitable. New phenomena and trends—technology, artificial intelligence, social media—go hand in hand with eternal questions about the meaning and direction of existence, the uncertainty of tomorrow, the inability to keep up with changes, the need to preserve the human element in a world of algorithms and procedures.
"Geopolonistyka" - invitation to fill out a survey
We cordially invite you to participate in "Geopolonistyka", the purpose of which is to create an interactive, multilingual database of Polish studies in the world. Information in the form of text, photos, recordings, podcasts, for which the basic guide is an interactive map, aim to create synthetic knowledge about the current state and history of Polish studies. "Geopolonistyka" allows you to recognize the activities of people and institutions involved in conducting various forms of research and teaching Polish literature, culture and language outside Poland – currently and in the past. We will be honored if you would like to present your activities within "Geopolonistyka" and fill out the survey provided by us.