December, 2022 - Hektoen International

Dictator on the couch: The only known psychological treatment of Adolf Hitler

December 29, 2022

Robert M. Kaplan Australia Top: Hitler in Landsberg Prison common room with (from left) Hess, Herman Kriebel, Fobke and Dr. Friedrich Weber. Chronicle / Alamy Stock Photo. Bottom: Landsberg Prison for War Criminals, 1933. Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo / Alamy Stock Photo. It is perhaps not widely known that Adolf Hitler, one of the most […]

Doctors’ husbands

December 29, 2022

Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden Photo by Ketut Subiyanto on Pexels. “Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe The stereotypical image of the “medical couple” is changing: it is no longer the doctor-husband and his nonphysician-wife. This change is permanent and will accelerate, since 60% of American […]

Wilson on the couch: How Sigmund Freud and William C. Bullitt, an American diplomat, came to analyze the American president

December 27, 2022

James L. Franklin Chicago, Illinois, United States Thomas Woodrow Wilson. Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress. Via Wikimedia. Public domain. In December 1966, Houghton Mifflin Company published Thomas Woodrow Wilson: Twenty-Eighth President of the United States, A Psychological Study by Sigmund Freud and William C. Bullitt. The curious fact that Sigmund Freud, the […]

The two Scottish doctors John Brown

December 27, 2022

Left: John Brown (1735–1788). US National Archives. Via Wikimedia. Public domain. Right: John Brown (1810–1882). Wellcome Collection via Wikimedia. CC BY 4.0. There were two John Brown physicians of note in Scotland, sometimes confused with one another and for practical purposes identified by the date of their birth. The older John Brown was born […]

Compassion in the emergency room

December 22, 2022

Raymond Bellis Stony Brook, New York, United States Photo by JacksonDavid on Pixabay. Yet another shift in the Emergency Department—between the frenzied rush of staff, the constant pinging of monitors, and the chaotic overhead announcements, I didn’t find the environment particularly conducive to healing. But as a dedicated student in my third year […]

Hemiplegic migraine, the monster

December 22, 2022

Ceres Alhelí Otero Peniche Mexico City, Mexico Mary Shelley by Richard Rothwell. Oil on canvas, c. 1831–1840. National Portrait Gallery, London, NPG 1235. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. The authors of great literary works allow their readers to enter into the very precincts of their imaginations, leading them to the most fantastical places they could have […]

Hunayn ibn Ishaq, Baghdad physician and polymath

December 21, 2022

Iluminure from the Hunayn ibn-Ishaq al-‘Ibadi manuscript of the Isagoge. Via Wikimedia. Arabic translation of Euclid’s Elements, 1270, by Ishaq Ibn Hunayn, a translator like his father before him. Google Arts and Culture. Via Wikimedia. Diagram of the eye by Hunayn ibn Ishaq. Cheshm manuscript, c. AD 1200. Cairo National Library. Via Wikimedia. Hunayn […]

Margery Kempe: Medieval visions, delusions, and hallucinations

December 20, 2022

Margery Kempe (c. 1393 – after 1438) was an English Christian mystic who dictated autobiographic notes to a scribe. Married when twenty years old, she had a postpartum psychotic episode after the birth of her first child and went through at least fourteen subsequent pregnancies. Psychotic symptoms, delusions, and hallucinations continued all her life. She had […]

Paruresis: “Shy bladder” syndrome

December 20, 2022

Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden “Keep calm and carry on.” – British motivational poster, 1939 Sensor operated urinals, which offer very little privacy. Photo by Julo (Steve Mann) on Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 3.0. Paruresis is the fear of being unable to urinate without privacy. It is more than simple shyness or embarrassment, but is […]

Gently, Doctor, tell me what you see

December 20, 2022

Florence Gelo Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Girl with a Hand Mirror. William McGregor Paxton, 1915. Courtesy of the Reading Public Museum, Reading, Pennsylvania. In order to emphasize the role of the arts when teaching the humanities in medicine, I have often taken medical students, residents, and doctors to art museums to develop the art […]