Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Fall 2010

  • The fisherman’s lasagna: a love story about prescriptive photomontage and anorexia

    Nancy Gershman Chicago, Illinois, USA Lauren Lazar Stern Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA   Can Sally,1 a 32-year old struggling with anorexia, also be a responsible student nurse on an eating disorder unit? The answer is never under-estimate the power of denial.2 The very qualities that masked Sally’s obsessive thinking about fat and the next meal were…

  • 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…

  • Self-inflicted

    Laura Olear Chicago, Illinois, USA   Artist’s statement This series of mixed media drawings is abstracted from biological imagery. They explore issues of control over one’s own health in the form of “self-inflicted” conditions or diseases. Obesity, anorexia, smoking, tanning, excessive alcohol consumption, and self-mutilation can all result in a variety of potentially life-threatening conditions.…