Reviewed by Giskin Day, Senior Teaching Fellow, Imperial College London Many people, including me until I read Katrina Bramstedt’s book, mistakenly use ‘vertigo’ to describe a fear of heights. The correct term for this is ‘acrophobia’. Vertigo is a serious and disabling symptom of a constellation of inner-ear disorders that describes a disorientating, spinning […]
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Tiger Country (Hampstead Theatre): A Review by Aneka Popat
For some, the workplace is synonymous with shiny desks, immaculate windows and a calm open sea of computers, complete with the reassuring hubbub of Monday morning gossip. Yet, for those that work in the capital’s hospitals, the workplace is a jungle where the gleam of a scalpel and the unforgiving glare of ward […]
Letting go of ourselves; how opening our minds will let us understand our patients by Benjamin Janaway
Empathy is described by Webster’s dictionary as ‘the feeling that you understand and share another person’s experiences and emotions’ 1, the subjective knowledge that you can be inside the mind of another and feel things as they do. I would argue that although this is a beautiful concept, due to the variation of people’s […]
The Reading Room: A review of Marion Coutts’s ‘The Iceberg’
The Iceberg by Marion Coutts Reviewed by Elizabeth Barry, Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, University of Warwick Marion Coutts’s 2014 memoir The Iceberg details the period covering her husband Tom Lubbock’s diagnosis with an aggressive brain tumour, the progress of his condition, and his death. Lubbock, art critic for The Independent newspaper, himself […]
The Reading Room: A review of Emma Healey’s ‘Elizabeth is Missing’
This is the first in a series of three books from the Costa Book Award 2014 category shortlist that will feature in the Reading Room. Elizabeth is Missing was yesterday announced as the First Novel category winner. Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey Reviewed by Andrea Capstick, Division of Dementia Studies, University of Bradford One […]
The Anthropology of Emory and Ebola: Emory Healthcare Thinks Outside of its “Concrete Box” by Laura Jones
Two days after Halloween, I met with Dr. Bill Bornstein, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Quality Officer at Emory Healthcare. I am a cultural anthropologist who has been conducting field work at Emory University Hospital (EUH) for three years, and Dr. Bornstein and I meet monthly to discuss hospital culture, specifically that of […]
Gamal Hassan: “Stoker’s plight: Is Murderous Instinct Nature or Nurture?”
A review of the film “Stoker” USA 2013 directed by Park Chan-Wook Mental illness and its impact on individuals and families have inspired film-makers from all around the world. “Stoker” directed by the visionary film maker Park Chan-Wook (of “Old boy” fame, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldboy_(2003_film) is a family drama with a different twist. […]
In the Shadow of Guardians: A Review of ‘Radiator’ and ‘My Old Lady’
“Radiator” screened at the London Film Festival October 2014, star rating: 4* directed by Tom Browne, due to be released in 2015 “My old lady” is currently in general release in the UK, star rating: 3*, directed by Israel Horovitz, http://cohenmedia.net/films/my-old-lady The Oxford dictionary defines the word “guardian” as ” a person who is legally […]
The Good Surgeon by Shekinah Elmore
I don’t know what to do with my life. I love surgery and I love people. It is frequently implied to me, without much subtlety, that those values are steeply at odds. “Surgery? I’m surprised! You’re so patient, you take time to explain things, and you don’t seem to get frustrated.” The resident had just met […]
The Reading Room: A review of Matilda Tristram’s ‘Probably Nothing’
Probably Nothing: A diary of not-your-average nine months Matilda Tristram Reviewed by Nicola Streeten Aged 31 and four months pregnant, Matilda Tristram was presented with an agonising dilemma following a diagnosis of stage three bowel cancer. In May 2013, The Guardian newspaper featured an interview with Matilda Tristram (Williams, 2014). It included an […]