Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Fall 2016

  • Resounding silence: The trouble with Hamlet’s body and soul

    Mary ValloGlastonbury, Connecticut, United States Central to medieval and Renaissance thought was the divide between the carnal body and the transcendent soul. As the only earthly beings to possess a soul, humans integrated the animal and the spiritual—a unique status that was both a blessing and a source of intense inner conflict.1 Shakespeare’s Hamlet addresses…

  • Consumption and vampires: Metaphor and myth before science

    Gregory Rutecki Cleveland, Ohio, United States   Illustrations of vampires. Provided by author.     “In New England . . . It is believed that consumption is not a physical but a spiritual disease . . . as long as the body of a dead consumptive relative has blood in its heart it is proof…

  • The boy with the fedora

    Christopher J. Schayer New Haven, Connecticut (Fall 2016) Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Photo submitted. One of the many wonderful things about going to school in New Haven, Connecticut is its proximity to New York City.  From the Metro North ride into the opulent Grand Central Station, to window shopping on 5th…

  • St. Patrick’s Hospital: a legacy of Jonathan Swift

    Linda Slusser Wellington, Ohio, United States   Jonathan Swift by Charles Jervas, 1718 Today, St. Patrick’s Hospital in Dublin, known for the innovative care of its patients provides “Ireland’s largest, independent, not-for-profit mental health services.”1 When founded in 1745 by the bequest of Jonathan Swift, it was the first psychiatric hospital to be built in…

  • Disclosure

    Tafadzwa Kasambira Silver Spring, Maryland, United States   Not long before she discovered her diagnosis, Rachel felt a flutter in her chest and a sense that the air seeping through her lungs was more agitated, as if moving through a maze. She had that feeling of foreboding you get as you slip into poor health―a…

  • Meeting of minds: When scientists and artists meet

    James MathewMilwaukee, Wisconsin, United States Away from the glitter and noise of the Toronto International Film Festival, two men met for dinner on the thirty-eighth floor of the Westin Harbor Palace. They dined on vegetables and seafood while enjoying a spectacular view of Lake Ontario, its gentle ripples sparkling with the colors of the setting…

  • Muslim women healers of the medieval and early modern Ottoman Empire

    Nada DarwishAlan S. WeberDoha, Qatar Although known only through court documents, legal proceedings, and references in the writings of male practitioners, the tabiba—a female practitioner of folk medicine, midwifery, and gynecology—was an important member of the medical community in the Ottoman Empire (1299–1923). The existing historical record unfortunately obscures the important role that women physicians, nurses,…

  • The boy with the fedora

    Christopher Schayer New Haven, Connecticut, United States   Radio City Music Hall in New York City One of the many wonderful things about going to school in New Haven, Connecticut is its proximity to New York City. From the Metro North ride into the opulent Grand Central Station, to window shopping on 5th Avenue, or…

  • Interviewing, Gibran, calligraphy

    Saleh AldasouqiEast Lansing, Michigan, United States One of the most enjoyable parts of my academic job is teaching. Interacting with medical students, residents, and fellows is a wonderful environment to practice medicine; and one particular fun part in teaching is interviewing for new training positions, residency, and fellowship. Interviewing gives one a unique opportunity to…

  • Saying thank you

    Robert Folberg Rochester, Michigan, USA   From the commencement address to graduates of the University of Illinois-Chicago College of Medicine on May 6, 2016   It seems to me that members of the medical profession should practice expressing gratitude as often as possible. After all, gratitude may be an effective antidote to arrogance: it is…