Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Books and Reviews

  • The bedside manners of Ingmar Bergman’s celluloid physicians

    Eelco WijdicksRochester, Minnesota, United States The great humanitarian filmmaker and auteur Ingmar Bergman used physicians in his films much more frequently than his peers. Bergman’s full filmography, including two films (Thirst and Brink of Life) directed by but not written by Bergman, features sixteen physicians in thirteen films. Excluding the family doctor in Fanny and…

  • Literatim: Essays at the intersections of medicine and culture

    Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, UK In this interesting collection, medical historian Howard Markel has brought together his previously published essays from the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, and the PBS Newsletter into one volume. The collection of eighty pieces covers a wide range of topics that have interested Markel over…

  • Reflections on time long gone by

    John RaffenspergerFort Meyers, Florida, United States The author of this delightful book, Dr. John Raffensperger, is a retired surgeon who entered medical school in 1949. His book presents a stark contrast between how medicine was practiced then and how it is now. It highlights the many changes, mostly good but some bad, that have taken…

  • Cinema MD: A History of Medicine on Screen

    Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, UK In 1895 Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays in his lab in Wurzburg and the Lumiere brothers demonstrated cinema in Paris. X-rays revolutionized medical practice by enabling doctors to see inside the body for the first time without resorting to surgery. Cinema, also a form of image production, revolutionized entertainment in the twentieth…

  • Canadian contributions to the study of pathology

    Guillermo QuinonezLaurette GeldenhuysNova Scotia, Canada Canadian and American medicine in general, and pathology in particular, have developed in parallel and in synchrony since the nineteenth century. Despite Canada’s limited population, scientific cultural similarities and geographical conditions would explain such development. Canadians, some of whom practiced both in the U.S. and Canada, have made important contributions…

  • Live chicken for treating plague buboes

    When the bubonic plague struck Europe after 1347, it left the medical profession helpless. Unable to cure or contain the disease, doctors focused largely on dealing with the buboes. They bled their patients and applied cups to prevent the dissemination of the poisonous contents, often choosing sites near to where the buboes were situated. They…

  • Book review: Nobel and Lasker Laureates of Chinese descent: In Literature and Science

    Laurence ChanDenver, Colorado, United States This book celebrates notable scholars of Chinese descent with a special focus on the Wolf Prize, and four Lasker and eleven Nobel laureates spanning a wide range of disciplines in both literature and science. We visit the struggles of pioneers Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang as the first Chinese Nobel…

  • Review of: Health Humanities in Postgraduate Medical Education: A Handbook to the Heart of Medicine

    J.T.H. ConnorSt. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada The backbone of this innovative and informative collection is comprised of eleven essays that address the spectrum of the arts and humanities and how they relate to postgraduate medical education. Most of the authors and their experiences are grounded in Canadian medical schools, but the literature they draw from is…

  • Giovanni Cortesi—Renaissance surgeon of Bologna and Messina

    We owe our gratitude to Dr. Paolo Savoia from the Department of History at King’s College London for his learned review of the life of Giovanni Batista Cortesi (1552–1643), a remarkable early Italian surgeon and physician who deserves to be better known. According to Dr. Savoia, the story of Giovanni Cortesi reads like a fairytale—how…

  • Professionalism in crisis: Dr. Winkel and The Third Man

    Paul DakinLondon, United Kingdom Times of crisis may highlight the best and worst characteristics of people. Many of us yearn to be heroes and yet what is revealed under pressure may fall short of our ideal. Doctors share this human frailty. Is medical training and professionalism enough to overcome personal weakness, allowing our behavior to…