‘He’s My Mate You See’: A Longitudinal Critical Discourse Analysis of the Therapeutic Role of Companion Animals for People Living with Severe Mental Illnesses

Article Summary by Helen Brooks There is increasing evidence of the supportive role pets play for people with mental health conditions. Pets have been shown to distract people from upsetting symptoms and experiences, offer an important source of comfort and routine, and promote social interaction. This paper aimed to extend our understanding of this therapeutic […]

Read More…

What’s in it for the Animals? Symbiotically Considering ‘Therapeutic’ Human-Animal Relations within Spaces and Practices of Care Farming

Article Summary by Richard Gorman Care farming is an emerging form of healthcare that aims to deploy farming practices as a type of therapeutic intervention, with human-animal relations framed as providing important opportunities for human health. The growing body of academic work on care farming links participation in a care farming scheme as having the […]

Read More…

Essential(ist) Medicine Promoting Social Explanations for Racial Variation in Biomedical Research

Article Summary by Iliya Gutin When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail—and when all you have is a definition of race rooted in biology and genetics, every racial disparity in health outcomes is attributed to these intrinsic differences. Fortunately, this narrative applies far less to contemporary biomedicine than the […]

Read More…

How “The Fault In Our Stars” Illuminates Four Themes of the Adolescent End of Life Narrative

Article Summary by Anna Obergfell Kirkman This paper suggests the creation of a new category of end of life (EOL) narrative, focused specifically on adolescents, in recognition of their distinct developmental features and their strong preferences about the dying process. Adult EOL narrative has long been showcased, and pediatric EOL narrative is often restricted by […]

Read More…

A Politics of the Senses: The Political Role of the Kings Evil in Richard Wiseman’s “Severall Chirurgicall Treatises”

Article Summary by Adam S. Komorowski Tuberculosis is a disease that comes in many forms: prior to the advent of modern medicine, one of the more common forms of tuberculosis was found in the lymph nodes in the neck. This form, especially within England and France, was known as “the King’s-Evil”. Thought to only be […]

Read More…

“The Doctor as a Humanist”: The Viewpoint of the Students

Conference Report and Reflection by Poposki Ognen (University Pompeu Fabra); Castillo Gualda Paula (University of Balearic Islands); Barbero Pablos Enrique (University Autonoma de Madrid); Pogosyan Mariam (Sechenov University); Yusupova Diana (Sechenov University); and Ahire Akash (Sechenov University)   The practice of Medicine as a profession has become very technical; doctors rely on fancy investigations, treatment […]

Read More…

June 2019 Special Issue: Psychosomatics

June Special Issue: Biopolitics, psychosomatics, participating bodies Brandy Schillace A New Outlook on Psychosomatics?: June’s Special Issue Brandy Schillace in conversation with Dr. Monica Greco Psychosomatic Subjects and the Agencies of Addiction by Darin Weinberg “Pulling the World In and Pushing it Away”: Participating Bodies and Survival Strategies by Robbie Duschinsky Agency, Embodiment and Enactment […]

Read More…

June 2018 Special Issue: Pain and its Paradoxes

Before Narrative: Episodic Reading and Representations of Chronic Pain by Sara Wasson Shifting Understandings of Labour Pain in Canadian Medical History by Whitney Wood Adaptive Frameworks of Chronic Pain: Daily Remakings of Pain and Care at a Somali Refugee Women’s Health Centre by Kari Campeau Pain as Performance: Re-Virginisation in Turkey by Hande Güzel   […]

Read More…