"Medicalisation of falling in love": medical students' responses to Thomas Mann's The Black Swan.

The value of implementing literature in medical education is widely accepted. The initial responses of medical students to Thomas Mann's short story The Black Swan are described and their resources for making sense of the story are presented. Their written responses revealed that the students interpreted the story mainly through a medical framework and were capable of understanding the story's complex and existential issues related to medicine. Evident gaps in the students' interpretations and understanding are discussed and suggestions on using such kinds of intellectual texts in medical teaching are offered.