YCSC Grand Rounds: "Thinking About My Sister’s Brain"

Session Description

Dr. Anna Reisman grew up with a nonverbal intellectually disabled sister with tuberous sclerosis and autism. Incorporating both personal history and archival material, she will share an account of her sister’s childhood, including her family’s efforts to make her sister “normal”, as well as the origin story of tuberous sclerosis. She will also show the power of words (such as “brain-damaged”) and images (such as x-rays and drawings) to shape our understanding of a condition or disease, and how her own perspective evolved over time.

The learning objectives for this session are to:

• Appreciate how a personal narrative deepens the understanding of a disease’s impact on a sibling and family.
• Grasp how historical context can broaden the contemporary understanding of a disease, using tuberous sclerosis as an example.
• Describe how the medical humanities can provide an approach to exploring a topic through multiple prisms, including archival photographs, paintings, and historical medical journals.

This will be a hybrid session, held live and in person from the Cohen Auditorium and simulcast via Zoom.

Continuing Education

The 2023-2024 YCSC Grand Rounds series has been approved for eligibility for Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits. Yale School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians. Individual event designation details are provided at applicable live events.

This program has been approved for one Continuing Education Credit Hour by the National Association of Social Workers, CT and meets the continuing education criteria for Social Work, Marriage & Family Therapist, Professional Counselor, and Licensed Psychologist Licensure renewal. Additional information will be provided at the live event.