Lecture: "The “ill-defined borderland between body and mind”: R.E. Havard’s Medical Imagination"

On 1/26/24 I had the pleasure of joining Joe Ricke’s Inkling Folk Fellowship for a talk and lively discussion on R.E. Havard and the Inklings. (To be placed on their email list, contact info@inklingfolk. org)

Here’s the event description:

We all know who the Inklings were. A loosely-knit group of writers, scholars, teachers, historians, writers (wait, did I already say that?), and A DOCTOR? Yes, R. E. Havard, "the Medical Inkling," has been the special research interest of Sarah O'Dell for several years. Known by the Lewis brothers as "Humphrey" or sometimes "the Useless Quack" (or just "U.Q."), he was, in reality, a physician-scientist and writer whose biomedical research was balanced by an enduring interest in aesthetics, religion, and literature. A devout Catholic, he wrote the appendix on pain, for Lewis's book The Problem of Pain. And was, indeed, "a skilled and prolific writer" (Diana Glyer). Join us via Zoom this Friday, January 26 at 4 p.m. (Eastern) to learn more.

Our guest this week, Sarah O’Dell is uniquely positioned to explain the life and work of Havard, herself being an MD/PhD candidate at the University of California, Irvine, where she is the first to complete a PhD in English within a dual MD/PhD program. As a future physician-scholar and psychiatrist, she is committed to exploring how the activity of the imagination—as shaped by literature, faith, and the arts—helps heal the mind. Her research has previously appeared in Mythlore, Seven, and the Journal of Medical Humanities. She is an alumna of Azusa Pacific University (BS Biology ’15 & MA English ’17), where she studied with Diana Glyer. She was featured in the Zoom session of the final "Lewis Tea" from Taylor University (Fall 2020), as one of the "future scholars" giving us hope for Inklings Studies.

When she’s not working on her dissertation (which presents the first combined study of the early gothic novel, religious studies, and the history of psychiatry), Sarah is usually reading and writing about the Inklings, particularly Havard (1901-1985). Her current book project—The Medical Inkling—explores Havard’s roles as a physician, Inkling, and Catholic writer, as well as reveals how his medical imagination influenced C.S. Lewis.

In reviewing Dr. Havard’s published and unpublished writings on psychological medicine, Sarah will explore Dr. Havard’s Catholic “medical imagination” as a holistic alternative to the totalizing gaze of 20th century Freudianism and scientism. Havard’s position is undoubtedly unique: the only scientifically trained member of the Inklings, and a practicing physician embedded among some of the most popular authors of the 20th century. By identifying R.E. Havard as a mediating figure between the disciplines, this talk will illustrate shared ground between Inklings studies and the Medical Humanities.

Invited Keynote at Providence College - "R.E. Havard: What C.S. Lewis's Physician Teaches Us about the Medical Imagination"

I was honored to contribute a lecture to Providence College’s Humanities Forum and C.S. Lewis Fellowship during homecoming weekend. The talk was also co-sponsored by the School of Nursing and Health Sciences. Previous speakers have included Michael Ward (author of Planet Narnia) and Carol Zaleski (co-author of The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings).

Often called the “medical Inkling,” R.E. Havard was a Catholic writer, physician, and one of C.S. Lewis’s closest friends. This lecture explores the life and writings of this often-overlooked literary doctor, considering not only his profound influence on C.S. Lewis, but also revealing the riches of his medical imagination. In making room for the soul, Havard’s holistic vision of health both articulates a Christian response to mental illness, as well as recognizes the healing power of literature and the arts.