Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Bojana Cokic

  • Pregnancy and art

    Bojana CokićZajecar, Serbia Pregnancy, the beginning of a new life, was historically uncommon in art. The shape of a pregnant woman does not conform to classical Greek ideals of the female figure, which may have contributed to this rarity. Over time, misconceptions about this necessary, natural phenomenon have changed, and pregnancy has become more common…

  • Habsburg dynasty and progenia

    Bojana CokićZajecar, Serbia Oscar Wilde (1854–1900, Irish poet) once said that “LIFE IMITATES ART. However, much more often, ART IS THE ONE THAT IMITATES LIFE.”1,2 In PROGENIA (mandibular prognathism) there is a poor relationship between the upper and lower teeth, upper and lower jaws, or between the jaw and the teeth. The most severe form…

  • Child’s play and art

    Bojana CokícZajecar, Serbia Childhood is an important time of learning and development. Play is the work of childhood, affecting sensorimotor, cognitive, emotional, moral, and social development.1 Children have always played.3 Throughout history, children’s games have changed with the social environment. In past centuries, children’s play began in the evening, on the street, after girls had helped…

  • Women in medicine in Serbia

    Bojana CokićZajecar, Serbia Draga Ljočić-Milošević, a feminist activist and the first female Serbian physician, dedicated her life to advancing women’s rights. She helped facilitate the emancipation of women in conservative Serbia and campaigned for gender equality in the field of medicine. The vast majority of Serbian women had few educational opportunities during the second half…

  • The art of breastfeeding

    Bojana CokićZajecar, Serbia Breastfeeding is the greatest and most precious gift of nature that a mother can give to her child. It is the foundation of life, a healthy start strengthening the bond between mother and child. The mother feels warmth and love when she embraces her child. The child feels serenity, joy, and warmth…

  • Down syndrome through the centuries in art

    Bojana CokićZajecar, Serbia  Though fully described by John Langdon Down in 1862, this syndrome of delayed growth, characteristic facial features, and intellectual impairment has been featured in numerous works of art since antiquity. References BOJANA COKIĆ, MD, is a pediatrician specialized in clinical genetics at the Children’s Hospital in Zajecar, Serbia, where she was been…

  • Obesity and art

    Bojana CokićZajecar, Serbia Obesity is the oldest and most common metabolic disorder of humans, as shown even by the sculptures of ancient civilizations, the Greek caryatids, and Egyptian sphinxes and mummies. Many artists have painted it on their canvases as seen through the prism of their artistic eye and in accordance with the prevalent conceptions…

  • Reflections on medicine and art

    Bojana CokićZajecar, Serbia Oscar Wilde believed that life imitates art and that what we perceive is beautiful only because “art” has taught us to regard it as such. But if indeed “life is art,” as Maxim Gorki wrote, “to be found in all its beauty and joy,” then clearly life has been with us since…