A couple of weeks ago a doctor friend from California was visiting me in London. Shortly before her arrival date swine flu fever was gripping the world’s media, with California proving a hotbed for new cases. And, illogically I’ll admit, I felt a certain disquiet that a doctor from the first US State to suffer […]
Latest articles
Two Lovers: a film about love, loss and living on the edge
Albert Camus argued that anyone who chooses life over death is an absurd hero. Absurd because Camus could see no logical reason why anyone would choose the pain and suffering that living even the most blessed of lives entails when ultimately the struggle to stay alive will surely fail. And heroic because, in full knowledge […]
“Doctor, I’m normal. Can you help?”
Yes, I know patients don’t actually complain of being normal, but isn’t there sometimes a not so small voice in your head telling you that this is, effectively, what’s happening? Why, you wonder, is this person surprised that if they continue to wear tight shoes their corns will keep returning? And why, oh why, do […]
Tense, nervous headache? How COPE can help you cope.
So how are you coping? Are you managing to make the right choices in these difficult times? And what if you make the wrong decision? Do you worry you might be sued, or worse still that the care people receive will suffer? And no, I’m not talking about the stresses and strains of clinical practice, […]
Medical humanities: what’s in it for patients?
So here’s the thing. No matter how interesting (or otherwise) medical school deans and research grant making bodies find the work done by medical humanities scholars and educators, the bottom line is (almost) always, what’s in it for patients? How will teaching students using art and literature make them better doctors; how will the insights […]
Medicine, Literature, Art and Music: Royal Society of Medicine, London 1st April 2009.
If you’re in the London region you might be interested in this symposium on medicine and the humanities. Focussing on literature, art and music it features some excellent speakers. In keeping with other RSM events, lively debate is sure to follow. http://www.rsm.ac.uk/academ/hsg106.php Venue: The Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 0AE Speakers to […]
Assembling Bodies: Art, Science and Imagination, Cambridge, UK
Atomised. Jim Bond. Animated Sculpture, 2005 Cambridge University’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology is a wonderful research and teaching resource. It’s also has an exhibition space that’s open to the public. […]
Falling in love again: an artsy doc’s guide to surviving the recession
This Christmas I received a very special present from my husband. After 23 years I guess he knows a thing or two about how to get me excited and he knows just the man to do it. He also knew, as we must all surely know by now, that this was an austerity Christmas. […]
Association of Medical Humanities
So where do you go, bedsides straight to our very own journal, website and blog, if you’re a clinician, educator or academic in the UK and Ireland with an interest, or even just a fledgling curiosity, about medical humanities? To the Association of Medical Humanities of course. Following this link to the Association’s website to […]
Taking the Body Seriously: 6th Annual AMH Conference, Durham 6-8th July 2009
We live in a society obsessed with the body: the body perfect; the body far from perfect; the body as commodity- modified, objectified, sold on to the highest bidder; the body as art and as the inspiration for art; the body as a source of identity; and the disrupted or diseased body as the object […]