Tag: Fall 2014
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Those golden years
Richard SobelKibbutz Revivim, Israel “I’ve only ever had one wrinkle, and I’m sitting on it.” Jeanne Clement was one hundred ten years old but cheerful and lucid when she made that remark during an interview. She may still have been smoking: she stopped only when her vision became too poor to see the cigarette well…
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Death by voodoo: truth or tale?
Judith N. WagnerMunich, Germany “Their medicine men have tremendous power over them: if they doom one of them to die, the unfortunate will accept his fate, isolate himself from his family and pass away within a short time.” I vividly remember the octogenarian, fragile but lively lady occupying the seat beside me on a flight…
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The law of diminishing returns: biomedical research in trouble
Hans Peter DietzAustralia It is that season of the year again. The medical faculty of my university bids us to attend another celebratory dinner, an opportunity to hand out awards and congratulate ourselves on how well we are all doing. In recent times such events leave me a bit confused. On the one hand I…
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Looking
Caroline WellberyWashington DC, United States I have always been an observer, something that comes so naturally to me that when I notice the absence of this skill in others, I am sometimes taken aback. “How could you not see that?” I ask, not always endearingly. To the credit of those non-observers I am thinking of,…
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Pain and palpation: reading the body narrative with the osteopathic medical touch
Aneesa SataurMiami, Florida, United States “An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage.”(Definition of Pain, The International Association for the Study of Pain, 2010)1 Pain is a complex sensation that incorporates the mental and the physical. Physicians are trained to ask specific questions…
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Paul Wood on history-taking
To take an accurate and relevant history is one of the most difficult and important arts in medicine. Sometimes, a complete diagnosis can be made from the history alone, and not infrequently the possibilities can be whittled down to two or three. A good history should at least indicate the system involved, or it should point…
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Philosophy and Medicine
Roger PadenVirginia, United States In 1894, Gustav Klimt and Franz Matsch received a commission to create a series of paintings that were to be installed on the ceiling of the Great Hall of the New University of Vienna. Eleven years later, in the midst of an increasingly bitter scandal, Klimt was forced to take back…
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When the sensory lens is an artistic prism: The brain, Kandinsky, and multisensory art
Gregory W. RuteckiCleveland, Ohio, United States In 1812 an Austrian physician named Georg Sachs published a medical dissertation about his family’s albinism.1,2 Conspicuous by inclusion, Sachs claimed to simultaneously hear and see colored music. His claim of a sensory duality is considered the first explicit mention of what would be later identified as synesthesia (from…
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Uncle and nephew: Alcohol-related dementia
Sergei JarginMoscow, Russia This essay is a composite of several stories published by different authors on the subject of alcohol induced dementia. It concerns two men, an uncle and his nephew. The uncle was more muscular than the nephew. The nephew had started binge drinking at the age of twelve and had obviously damaged his…
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On madness, poetry, and creativity
Jeanne PetrolleChicago, Illinois, United States Nineteen years ago I lost my mind. Working three low-wage jobs and plying myself with caffeine, wine, and marijuana, I became obsessed with a rising indie rock star. Insomnia and euphoria obliterated my good sense. After meeting the target of my obsession, I left my husband and all three jobs…