Visceral Resonance

“Traditionally, physicians have been taught that suffering was something to be ‘witnessed objectively’ and then ‘alleviated’ through action. Using the theological perspective of Thomas Aquinas and approaches from narrative-based medicine, Dr. Ann Sirek offers a model of care that prioritizes the removal of obstacles to personal agency and flourishing. This approach incorporates the traditional need for medical meaning making, while honoring the practical knowledge that only the body and the five senses can provide, for both patient and healer. The possibility of transformation occurs through a ‘visceral,’ embodied accompaniment. This book reminds us why theology should not be excluded from the company of bioethics and philosophy in our growing field of medical humanities.”


—Allan Peterkin, Professor of Psychiatry and Family Medicine and Head of the Program in Health, Arts, and Humanities, University of Toronto





“Dr. Sirek highlights the poverty of dealing with human suffering with only the traditional rational and detached scientific approach. She develops a model that is attuned to the personal story of sufferers, with their emotions, feelings, and experiences. This theological focus on the embodied and sensory nature of human experience is also applicable to other fields. In biblical studies, a narrative reading of texts with this sensitivity and awareness helps to unlock the deeper meaning of the symbols, images, and rhetoric.”


—Scott M. Lewis, SJ, Associate Professor of New Testament, Regis College, Toronto School of Theology





“Sirek re-visions the meaning of patient-centered practices for transformative healing by engaging a brilliant tapestry of voices from across disciplines in light of her own commitments and insights as a physician and theologian. Her rereading of Thomas Aquinas on the psychosomatic self invites and challenges all teachers and practitioners dedicated to authentic caregiving and healing to learn the praxis of sustained engagement with the experience of the sufferer as pathway to empowerment, wellness, and transformation.”


—Jennifer Constantine Jackson, Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, Villanova University





“Ann Sirek uses Aquinas’ understanding of the sensuality of human experience to gain a new perspective ‘from below’ on the condition of the sufferer precisely in her immobility, silences, and broken words. Sirek accompanies the sufferer as she gropes toward a self-narrative open to the spirit of resurrection and the freedom of movement it enables. She writes as both experienced physician and theological ethicist, offering fresh insight to medical clinicians and theological ethicists alike.”


—Robert Sweetman, H. Evan Runner Chair in the History of Philosophy, Institute for Christian Studies, Toronto





“Visceral Resonance is an academically challenging work calling for an ethical shift in medical practice from the view from the top to a view from the bottom, an inversion supported by a Thomist perspective. It’s written from compelling compassion that unwaveringly believes a new perspective is required to address suffering that can find flourishing and well-being beyond the presenting trial. Here you will find the heart of a physician and the mind of a theologian.”


—GailMarie Henderson, Faculty, Thorneloe University, Sudbury, Ontario