Film Review by Dr Khalid Ali, film and media correspondent Two films screening in the Sundance London Film Festival explore the emotionally charged time around a terminal illness and how to communicate and share such bad news between patients and their families. Some family members urge doctors not to tell their relatives the true nature […]
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December 2018 Special Issue: Medical and Health Humanities in Africa
Special Issue Focus: Medical Humanities in Africa Medical and Health Humanities in Africa – Inclusion, Access, and Social Justice Editorial Critical Orientations for Humanising Health Sciences Education in South Africa by Berna Gerber, Michelle Pentecost, Megan Wainwright and Thomas Cousins Reflections on a Field Across Time and Space: The Emergent Medical and Health Humanities in […]
Making History Matter: Interview with Julian Simpson on #migration, Social Issues, and the Role of History
Podcast Interview with Julian Simpson On today’s podcast, EIC Brandy Schillace speaks to Julian Simpson. Simpson is a freelance historian with research interests in the relevance of history to policy, the history of the NHS, migration (particularly medical migration), mental health, and the use of oral history. Up for discussion today is the responsibility of […]
The Biopsychosocial Model of Health and Disease: New Philosophical and Scientific Developments
Book Review by Neil Vickers Derek Bolton and Grant Gillett, The Biopsychosocial Model of Health and Disease: New Philosophical and Scientific Developments. Houndmills: Palgrave, 2019. ISBN 978-3-030-11899-0. This book is an open access book, that can be downloaded free of charge. The biopsychosocial model of health and disease (BPSM) is the nearest thing academic medicine […]
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and an Illness-Focused Approach to Care: Controversy, Morality, and Paradox
Article Summary by Michael Sharpe and Monica Greco THIS IS A PREVIEW; the article will appear in the June issue. Please send your commentaries and e-letters based on the printed article. Link coming. In this piece, we explore the controversy concerning the treatment of the illness called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or CFS, which is sometimes […]
Vital Spaces: Mental Health and the Biopolitics of Enabling Places
Article Summary by Steven Brown and Paula Reavey In this article for June’s special issue, Steven Brown and Paula Reavey discuss “vital spaces” and “mental health.” As a Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology at The Open University, Brown is particularly interested in ‘vulnerable’ populations whose memories are often treated as problematic. Paula Reavey, a Professor […]
Women United: The RCOG celebrates the International Day of Action for Women’s Health
Tuesday 28 May 2019 – International Day of Action for Women’s Health 16:00-20:00 Lecture Theatre, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists 27 Sussex Place, Regents Park, London, NW1 4RG Please register at reception. Overview Introduction Women United is a medical documentary film forum that showcases a diverse selection of international short films, all in the […]
A New Outlook on Psychosomatics?: June’s Special Issue
Brandy Schillace in conversation with Dr. Monica Greco What are Biopolitics? And what, for that matter, are psychosomatics? Join us today on the podcast to hear a preview of our June special issue with Monica Greco. Let’s look at an example: ‘Smokers and obese people “soft targets” for NHS savings’, says a surgeon quoted in […]
On Illness and Value: Biopolitics, Psychosomatics, Participating Bodies
Article Summary by Monica Greco In its heyday, around the mid-twentieth century, psychosomatic medicine was heralded as a new science of body/mind relations that held the promise of transforming medicine as a whole. Sixty years on, the field has achieved no more than a respectable position as a research specialism within a model of practice […]
The History of a Superstition
Reflection by GL Krishna (The ministry of AYUSH, Government of India, recently issued an advisory that reiterated its long held official view that “the principles, concepts and approaches of ayurveda are not at all comparable with those of the modern medical system.” This view of an absolute dichotomy between the two systems implicitly disputes the […]