Article Summary by Fran Pheasant-Kelly Covid-19 affected, and continues to affect us all to some degree. For those who were around in the 1980s, there are aspects of the virus that chillingly recall the initial terrors of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Such connections are evident in news media coverage of Covid-19 – this article examines those […]
Tag: research
Cristina Mejia Visperas, Skin Theory: Visual Culture and the Postwar Prison Laboratory
Announcement from the Levan Institute for the Humanities Upcoming Levan Book Chat Thursday, December 7 | 12:00 PM | Virtual Cristina Mejia Visperas is Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Southern California. She will be joined in conversation by Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu (NYU) and Anthony Hatch (Wesleyan University), moderated by Nayan Shah […]
September 2023 Standard Issue
Ethics and medical specimens Brandy Schillace Human-centred design, disability and bioethics Matthew Wolf-Meyer The use of an object: exploring physician burnout through object relations theory Jo Winning Reversing the medical humanities [read the article summary] Helene Scott-Fordsmand ‘Why They Laugh At Us?’: the functions and ethics of humour in Singaporean theatrical depictions of stigmatised illness […]
‘Freudism’ and Modernity: Transcultural Impact of Psychoanalysis in the Modern Turkish Novel
Article Summary by Burcu Alkan “‘Freudism’ and Modernity: Transcultural Impact of Psychoanalysis in the Modern Turkish Novel” looks at ‘Freudism’ as an intellectual contact zone in the discussions of Turkish modernisation as represented in two novels: Matmazel Noraliya’nın Koltuğu (1949, The Armchair of Mademoiselle Noralia) and Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitüsü (1962, The Time Regulation Institute, 2014). […]
Reversing the Medical Humanities
Article Summary by Helene Scott-Fordsmand In the article “Reversing the Medical Humanities” I make the argument that humanities scholars engaging in medical humanities have tended to think about how they might help improve medicine in different ways – for example by training doctors in empathy and communication, or by acting as a critic that keeps […]
Narrative and Its Discontents
Article Summary by Alastair Morrison For several decades, narrative medicine has been the most internationally recognized program for humanities education in medicine. This review article considers new work from within narrative medicine, as well as recent responses to it from other positions within medical humanities, to suggest changes of thinking underway in these fields. Specifically, […]
Metaphors and Decision Making in Parental Blogs About Their Children with Life-Limiting Diseases: Who’s Afraid of the War Metaphor?
Article Summary by Veronica Neefjes When we use war metaphors we think of a particular situation as a fight. War metaphors are widely used to spur people into action; ‘fight climate change’ and ‘war on drugs’ are just two examples. In healthcare war metaphors have a poor reputation because many fear that thinking of especially […]
Performing HeLa: Theatrical Bodies and Living Remains
Article Summary by Emma Cox My work considers the role theatre and performance play in making sense of diverse healthcare experiences, medical histories, and biomedical technologies. My essay in this issue of Medical Humanities is concerned with how theatre, as an embodied artform, can make meaning out of the complicated, traumatic histories that have built up […]
June 2023 Special Issue: Talking About Sex and Reproduction: Counselling in Postwar Europe
Talking about Sexual and Reproductive Health: Counselling Encounters in Postwar Europe Jenny Bangham, Yuliya Hilevych, Caroline Rusterholz “If We Can Show That We Are Helping Adolescents to Understand Themselves, Their Feelings and Their Needs, Then We Are Doing [a] Valuable Job”: Counselling Young People on Sexual Health in the Brook Advisory Centre (1965–1985) Caroline Rusterholz […]
Making the ‘Genetic Counsellor’ in the UK, 1980–1995
Article Summary by Jenny Bangham Genetic counsellors are medical professionals who help parents and patients interpret the results of genetic tests. Genetic testing is routine in pregnancy and paediatrics, and is becoming increasingly prevalent in other specialisms, such as oncology and cardiology. The results of genetic tests are potentially highly emotional—provoking guilt, fear, confusion (as […]