Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: abuse

  • When daydreaming becomes a problem

    S.T Gamage Colombo, Sri Lanka   Where the thoughts live by Marija Tiurina. Published with permission. “They say there’s no harm in daydreaming, but there is.” — Charlaine Harris   An excessive amount of daydreaming can lead to a psychological condition called maladaptive daydreaming (MD). It is also known as daydreaming disorder. Professor Eliezer Somer…

  • Queen Juana: The mad or the betrayed?

    Juliana Menegakis London, United Kingdom   Juana I de Castilla, ca. 1500 Master of Affligem. Museo Nacional de Escultura. Via Wikimedia. Juana of Castile is known by her epithet “the Mad.” But was she truly insane? Infanta Juana of Castile and Aragon was born in 1479 to Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of…

  • Munchausen by Proxy

    Charles HalstedDavis, California, United States My last patient of the morning was a teenage girl, just turned eighteen. She walked in slowly, her face in agony, apprehensive. Her mother said the pain had begun at age twelve, about when she started to menstruate, yet it never let up, periods or not. Refusing food, she began…

  • Intersection of mental illness, the supernatural, and gender in Pakistan

    Sualeha Siddiq Shekhani Karachi, Pakistan   Man with the spirit of his deceased second wife. William Hope. c. 1920 Credit: National Science and Media Museum. No known copyright restrictions. Maria sits across from me in a pristine clinic room in a private hospital in Pakistan. At first reluctant to speak about her husband’s illness, her…

  • History repeated: child abuse in the United States

    Joseph deBettencourt Chicago, Illinois, United States   U.S. Border Patrol agents conduct intake of illegal border crossers at the Central Processing Center in McAllen, Texas, Sunday, June 17, 2018. Q: Did you see any place for this child to sleep in? A: No, Sir, except in one corner. The child told me she slept up…

  • When a movie ticket to the battered may help!

    Rema Sundar Trivandrum, Kerala, India   No Discrimination! ‘The World’s Women 2015: Trends and Statistics’ by United Nations Statistics Division (Creative Commons) Domestic violence awareness through film When four-time Grammy Award winner Tracy Chapman crooned “Last night I heard the screaming,” she was reflecting on a global public health problem. Instances of abuse and violence…

  • NormalHang in ThereThe Monster and other work

    Monika Filipiak Peszek   About two years after my daughter was born, I was depressed. I didn’t want to go anywhere or do anything. I could feel myself growing heavier and heavier, and angrier and angrier. I was mad at my husband all the time. I blamed him for the way I was feeling. I…