Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Fall 2008

  • Medicine and literature: passion, compassion, confusion and other emotions in stories of sickness and healers

    John Last Ottawa, Canada   Text based on a talk in a Symposium on “The role of the medical humanities in education and healing”, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, May 19, 1999. A complete physician needs insight transcending the knowledge, skills and attitudes that professional training provides. How can this be achieved? Personal experience of illness…

  • Death in ancient times

    George DuneaChicago, IL British Medical Journal, Volume 294, 18 April 1987 “Many a physician has slain a king!” the emperor Hadrian shouted aloud as he lay on his deathbed. But Augustus when he was near death gathered his friends to ask if, in the manner of actors, he deserved applause for having played well his…