Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: faith healer

  • Healing: A word that connects or separates patients from their doctors

    Fergus ShanahanCork, Ireland “He is cured by faith who is sick of fate.”James Joyce (Finnegans Wake, 482)1 In Brian Friel’s play Faith Healer, Francis “Frank” Hardy has self-doubts.2 Is his power to heal diminishing? Is it real, autosuggestion, or chance? Does it require faith? People who come to see Frank are desperate, but whether they…

  • Gospel Argonaut

    Josephine Ensign Seattle, Washington, United States   Entrance to Wayside Mission Hospital housed on the steamboat IDAHO, Seattle, circa 1900. Photo: University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections UW6573. Short of stature and tall of tales, Alexander de Soto was by some accounts a highly educated, skilled, compassionate physician and surgeon, and by other accounts a…