Article Summary by Darin Weinberg In this article I show how debates in addiction science have, in various ways, echoed broader debates opposing freewill and determinism—or more specifically, a neurologically determinist understanding of human behaviour and more voluntaristic understandings of human behaviour as caused by choices. I show that this has resulted not only in […]
Tag: medhums
To Be or Not to Be: Is TB Elimination Possible in India Through a Humanistic Approach?
Reflection by Kesavan Rajasekharan Nayar India is one of the few countries where Tuberculosis is still widely prevalent. One of the oldest of human diseases in recorded history is still inhumanly ravaging lives despite India developing one of the most human-centred National Tuberculosis Programs way back in the sixties.1 It gave primacy to the people […]
Leçons De Ténèbres
Dr Mohammad Razai trained at University of Cambridge and is an Academic Clinical Fellow in Primary Care at St George’s University of London. When the time came, I was called to witness the anguish of his soul, as he slipped in and out of consciousness. His pulse was withering away. He exhaled one last gasp […]
How Reality Hit Home as a Junior Doctor Resuscitating a Drowned Child
Dr Mohammad S Razai trained at University of Cambridge and is an Academic Clinical Fellow in Primary Care at St George’s University of London. In the blink of an eye, the tide had become too high and the wind too strong. The child, who was playing moments earlier in the sandy devon beach, had disappeared […]
Acting by Persuasion; Values and Rhetoric in Medical Certificates of Work Incapacity; A Qualitative Document Analysis
by Guri Aarseth When acting as experts for the Norwegian National Insurance Administration (NAV), should the GP first and foremost consider the interest of his/her patient, his/her own professional integrity or the interest of society? Values are present in nearly all texts; a legitimate medical certificate is supposed to be ‘neutral, professional and objective’ – […]
Temporary Measures
What some call “burnout” is really an epidemic affecting future doctors, and short-term fixes aren’t the answer. By Amitha Kalaichandran, M.D. “It’s just a temporary measure,” the nurse told me. We were wheeling the patient – a teen girl – from her room in the intensive care unit (ICU) to the CT scanner on the […]
When Pigs Fly Emotional Support Animals, Service Dogs and the Politics of Legitimacy across Species Boundaries
by Justyna Wlodarczyk About a year ago, I attended a lecture by a prominent expert in therapy dogs who used the term “emotional support animal” in his talk, accompanied by an image of a pig on a plane in the PowerPoint presentation. The mere mention of the term was enough to get the audience – […]
Being Well Together: Human-Animal Collaboration, Companionship and the Promotion of Health and Wellbeing
by Robert Kirk, Neil Pemberton and Tom Quick This research forum is titled Being Well Together: human-animal collaboration, companionship and the promotion of health and wellbeing, It grew out a meeting at the University of Manchester in September 2018, supported by the UK’s Wellcome Trust. We invited academics working in disciplines across the humanities and […]
The Politics of Female Pain: Women’s Citizenship, Twilight Sleep and the Early Birth Control Movement
by Lauren MacIvor Thompson Thanks for reading “The Politics of Female Pain: Women’s Citizenship, Twilight Sleep, and the Early Birth Control Movement” in this month’s issue of Medical Humanities! If you are interested in the contemporary issues surrounding women’s health, pregnancy, and labor and delivery, this article will help shed some light on how we […]
Sophistry in American Medicine? Platonic Reflections on Expertise, Influence and the Public’s Health in the Democratic Context
by Evan V Goldstein So long as I maintain this Oath faithfully and without corruption, may it be granted to me to partake of life fully and the practice of my art, gaining the respect of all men for all time. However, should I transgress this Oath and violate it, may the opposite be my […]