Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: synesthesia

  • Synesthesia, empathy, and the “art” of medicine

    Maeve Pascoe Cleveland, Ohio, United States   Mind of the Beholder (click to view). Artwork by Maeve Pascoe, November 16, 2016. Presented at the 2017 Helicon History of Art Undergraduate Society “Synesthesia” student art exhibition at the University of Michigan. “Do my name next!” people would exclaim as I tried to explain that I am…

  • When the sensory lens is an artistic prism: the brain, Kandinsky, and multisensory art

    Gregory W. RuteckiCleveland, Ohio, United States In 1812 an Austrian physician named Georg Sachs published a medical dissertation about his family’s albinism.1,2 Conspicuous by inclusion, Sachs claimed to simultaneously hear and see colored music. His claim of a sensory duality is considered the first explicit mention of what would be later identified as synesthesia (from…