Health Humanities lecture - 'What can the Great Rising of 1381 tell us about modern medical practice?'

Health Humanities Special Interest Group

Developing transformative research across Health and allied disciplines, the Arts, Humanities and beyond. 

Are you interested in Arts and have interests in its therapeutic benefits? Maybe you are interested in Medicine and you have an interest in the history of the discipline. Perhaps you’re interested in how we can develop the physical environment of hospitals to positively impact the wellbeing of hospital staff and patients.

The Health Humanities SIG is following on from its launch last year with an exciting series of events and opportunities aimed at exploring the intersection between Health, Medicine and Society, and the Arts and Humanities.

'What can the Great Rising of 1381 tell us about modern medical practice?'

Having practised as a forensic psychiatrist for over two decades, in recent years Prof Taj Nathan has broadened his academic interests to encompass historical studies. In this talk, he will share his insights into the different ways the apparently diverse disciplines of medicine and history can complement each other. Using illustrative examples ranging from the fourteenth-century Great Rising to the eighteenth-century publications of the Ordinaries of Newgate, Taj will demonstrate the value of the humanities to modern medical practice.

Image: Jean Froissart, Chroniques, fol 154v – Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons. 'Richard II meeting with the rebels of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381' 

Professor Rajan (Taj) Nathan MB, BCh, MSt (Oxon), MMedSc, MD, DipFSc, MRCPsych, is a Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist and Director of Research (Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust) (amongst other things). He has extensive experience of working in a wide variety of forensic and non-forensic mental health settings, particularly in the context of complex mental health problems, personality disorder and autism spectrum disorder. His recent book (2021) Dangerous Minds: A Forensic Psychiatrist’s Quest to Understand Violence received high acclaim. His recent research on the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381 bridges the gap between the Humanities and modern medical practice.