Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: love

  • Drunk in love: bodies and consumption in Samson and Delilah

    Lee Andrews     Samson and Delilah (1610) by Peter Paul Rubens Peter Paul Rubens’ rendition of Samson and Delilah (1610) depicts Samson sleeping on Delilah’s lap as a Philistine cuts his hair, thereby removing the secret to his herculean strength. The artist who gave us the term “Rubenesque,” in which the words “plump” and…

  • Lovesickness in art and medicine

    Frank Gonzalez-CrussiChicago, Illinois, United States Have you ever suffered the pangs of romantic passion? Count yourself lucky if you have not, for studies show that this feeling may thrive in any world culture.1 The defining characteristic of lovesickness is an obsessive thought: the lovelorn are tormented by the constant image of the unattainable love-object. This…