Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: hypochondria

  • Hypochondria

    JMS PearceHull, England, United Kingdom In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold;Alike fantastic, if too new, or old:Be not the first by whom the new are tried,Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.— Alexander Pope The changing use and meaning of words are the daily bread of dictionary compilers. Long ago…

  • Otto von Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor

    Otto von Bismarck was born into a family of Junkers in Brandenburg in 1815. Becoming prime minister of Prussia at the age of forty-seven in 1862, he remained in power for twenty-eight years. During this time he united Germany under Prussian hegemony; defeated Denmark, Austria, and France in three wars; annexed Schleswig-Holstein, Alsace, and Lorraine…

  • Living with incidental cyberchondria

    Theresa Danna Burbank, California, United States   Bioblasts. Credit: Odra Noel. CC BY-NC Before the Internet, if I had a pain in my chest, I would assume it was gas and then burp and move on with my day. After the Internet, if I have a pain in my chest, I panic and think, “That’s…

  • The art of Laura Olear

    Laura Olear Chicago, Illinois, USA   Viruses and Bacteria series Artist’s Statement We live in an age of profound advances in health and medicine, yet there has never been a wider gap between objective and perceptive health. I am interested in the ways in which many people dissociate themselves from their bodies and health, while…