Blog by Steven H. Miles, MD The two-faced Roman god Janus is about transitions: from what came before to what now begins, from war to peace or from peace to war. It is easy to imagine the image of Janus atop the arch of this moment in the history of the medical profession. Here, it […]
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Black History Month Feature: Margaret Morgan Lawrence
Blog by Cristina Hanganu-Bresch Today we honor Margaret Morgan Lawrence (1914-2019), a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, trailblazer pioneer in children’s community health. Lawrence had a storied career that was threatened at many turns by the intersection of racism and sexism. A graduate of Cornell in 1936 (when dorms were still segregated), she was denied entrance at […]
Unexpected Gifts: Film review of “Looted,” by Rene van Pannevis
Looted, directed by Rene van Pannevis, UK, 2019, available on virtual cinema and on-demand. by Professor Robert Abrams, Weill Cornell, New York. Alert: the review contains plot spoilers! The central story of Looted is a bitter father-son saga, a tragedy about parental failure and filial remorse. The film also includes explicit depictions of terminal […]
Review of “I Know This Much Is True” TV series (Derek Cianfrance, USA, 2020)
“Man Can Do What He Wills But He Cannot Will What He Wills” On the Freedom of the Will, Arthur Schopenauer, 1839. By Dr. Franco Ferrarini, gastroenterologist and film reviewer. This short HBO series centres on the life of two twin brothers, Thomas, and Dominick Birdsey (both played by Mark Ruffalo), the former affected by […]
Black History Month Features: Mae Jemison
Feature1 by Brandy Schillace It’s true that doctors wear many hats. Mae Jemison also wore a space suit. In today’s feature, we honor Mae Jemison, an American engineer, physician, and NASA astronaut. Jemison attended Cornell Medical School, after receiving her degree in chemical engineering. During her years at Cornell, she worked at a Cambodian refugee […]
Book Review: Claire Hilton on “Staring Night” by Robert Abrams.
Staring Night: Queen Victoria’s Late-life Depression by Robert C Abrams (New York: International Psychoanalytic Books, 2020. ISBN 978-1-949093-55-1) by Claire Hilton MD PhD FRCPsych, Historian in Residence, Royal College of Psychiatrists, 21 Prescot St, London E1 8BB, UK historian@rcpsych.ac.uk In the last few months of her life, Queen Victoria was solemn, sad, and fearful, yet […]
Reflecting on Loss and Grief
Review of ‘Loco’ (Rory Wilson, UK, 2020), ‘Skeletons’ (Will Peppercorn, UK, 2020), and ‘Early Grief Special’ (Jessica Chowdhury, UK, 2020), showing at the BFI Future Film Festival—Free Program Available online 18–21 February 2021, https://www.bfi.org.uk/future-film-festival Film Review by Khalid Ali, Film and Media Correspondent History taking from patients, and presenting stories of people’s illness in a […]
Call for Papers: Access and Social Justice
The Covid-19 pandemic has stripped away comfortable illusions, has exposed how fragile our medical, governmental, and social health care systems, and has shed additional light on deeply problematic inequalities in the distribution and allocation of care. We mustn’t return to normal; normal was not good enough. For this reason, we are continuing this year in […]
Book Review: “Body Talk in the Medical Humanities: Whose Language”
by Teodora Manea Jennifer Patterson and Francia Kinchington (eds): Body Talk in the Medical Humanities: Whose Language, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019, pp. 311 This book explores different discourses around the body, focusing on the idea of body-talk and body language. The complexity of this topic is generated by the fact that we […]
Black History Month Feature: Dr. Oni Blackstock
Throughout the month of February, in honor Black History Month, the Medical Humanities-BMJ blog is proud to feature distinguished Black individuals who have made outstanding contributions to medicine and medical humanities. By Brandy Schillace, Medical Humanities-BMJ EIC Here at Medical Humanities, we have been very lucky to have hosted Dr. Oni Blackstock, MD, MHS, on […]