Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Hektoen

  • Marie Elizabeth Zakrzewska: Immigrant, physician, teacher

    Cynthia KramerWaianae, Hawaii, United States Marie Elizabeth Zakrzewska was a female physician and teacher, at a time when women were not taken seriously in the field of medicine by their male counterparts. She served as head midwife at the Royal Charite Hospital in Berlin, Germany, then moved to the United States and received a doctor…

  • Latin and medicine

    Noah DeLoneMiami, Florida, United States Language is the cornerstone of our ability to communicate as humans and underlies the prose of our medical discourse. The words we select can be indicative of our background, training, and intentions. It should come as no surprise that a robust knowledge of one’s own language is essential to good…

  • Synesthesia in medicine and the humanities

    Eleni I. (Lena) ArampatzidouGreece Dr. Arampatzidou would like to dedicate this essay to Professor Alexander Nehamas, Director Dimitri Gondicas and the Stanley Seeger Center at Princeton University for their support and generosity in offering her a research fellowship in medical humanities which made this publication possible. Synesthesia (syn=plus + aesthesis=sensation in Greek) is a term used…

  • Sylvia Plath: The tortured artist?

    Kathleen CoggshallSan Francisco, California, United States The image of a chain-smoking, booze-addled writer is a common one, occurring so frequently in modern culture that one begins to wonder if depressed people find solace in creative endeavors, or if the soul-searching process of crafting a sonnet or composing a musical piece puts one at higher risk…

  • A difficult diagnosis: Humor—how we laugh at doctors

    Kate BaggottSt. Catharines, Ontario, Canada “To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain and play with it,”1 silent film star Charlie Chaplin wrote in his autobiography. Chaplin’s words do not exactly connect the funny bone to the humerus, and the anatomy of comedy has never been easy to chart, especially when it…

  • Humanities at the heart of healthcare

    Victoria BonebakkerPortland, Maine, United States Imagine doctors, nurses, receptionists, trustees, administrators, lab techs and physician assistants, books in hand, sitting in a hospital conference room, cafeteria or lounge. With a humanities scholar serving as a facilitator, they are discussing the novel, short story or poem they have read, and reflecting together on what it means…

  • Lament to measles

    Nazan BilgelBursa, Turkey I am the sorrowful, dull winter sunResting silently on the naked branches of the treesWarming and soothingVillages, roads, and mountain stones.I saw a village far awayBehind the mountains, you couldn’t know So described the poet Ceyhun Atuf Kansu himself when he saw so many dying children because of measles.1 Although a simple preventable…

  • Doctor Rabelais Part III: Doctor Rondibilis on bridling the senses

    During their travels Pantagruel and Panurge meet Dr. Rondibilis, from whom Panurge seeks advice on whether to marry. There follows a passage that has been characterized as “pearls buried in the manure, amid the coarse and obstetric remarks on Panurge’s marriage.” The learned doctor discusses the pros and cons of marriage and outlines five possible…

  • Doctor Rabelais Part IV: Rabelais on women and doctors

    “When I speak of women,” said the doctor, “I speak of a sex so fragile, so variable, so changeable, so inconstant, and so imperfect . . . that Plato, you will recall, was at a loss where to class them. . . . For nature has placed in their bodies . . . certain humors,…