Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Review of Health Humanities in Postgraduate Medical Education: A Handbook to the Heart of Medicine

  • John E. Fryer, M.D.: A majority of one

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one.”– Henry David Thoreau Homosexuality was defined as a psychiatric disorder in 1952, in the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of the American Psychiatric Association (APA).1 Because… Read more

  • I’m not a good man or a bad man, I just follow orders

    Luisa Alanís SáenzMexico City, Mexico “Shoot, they told me. I obeyed.I’ve always been obedient. By obedienceI conquered my high rank…I’m not a good man or a bad manI just follow orders”1– José Emilio Pacheco (my translation) In 1942, a man designed efficient plans to transport… Read more

  • Lassa: The small town with the mark of death

    Patrick AshinzeIrrua, Edo State, Nigeria Little has been written about Lassa, a small town plagued by terrorism in northeastern Nigeria. No one has published even a cursory description of its topography or demography, its markets, schools, infrastructure, or the people who come from it. It… Read more

  • Reclamation

    Natalie PerlovPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Like many people, my first experience with death was losing a grandparent. I remember my parents organizing my late grandfather’s affairs, noting our religious practice of having as few people as possible touch the body before the burial. Our culture… Read more

  • Galactagogues in postpartum rituals

    Puja PersaudTrue Blue, Grenada, West Indies Having a baby demands drastic changes in lifestyle, eating habits, and sleeping patterns. Many cultures across the world practice postpartum rituals that “allow the mother to be ‘mothered’,” and help to “facilitate the transition into motherhood.”1 For generations, the… Read more

  • Discovering genius: The neurobiological substrate of intelligence

    Helena LjuljZagreb, Croatia “It is by the shape and size of the forehead that we are to judge of the extent of a man’s understanding… When the frontal vein appears distinctly in the midst of a forehead, open, uniform, and regularly arched, it announces extraordinary… Read more

  • Ancient remedies for modern times

    Vicky LiDallas, Texas, United States “To a synthetic chemist, the complex molecules of nature are as beautiful as any of her other creations.”– Elias James Corey (Nobel Lecture, 1990)1 As the Vietnam War raged through the 1960s, the Northern Vietnamese army faced its greatest foe… Read more

  • Book review: Pathogenesis: How Germs Made History

    Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, UK I do not use superlatives lightly, but this is an extraordinary book. It is ambitious in scope and seeks to describe the progress of humanity from earliest times with an emphasis on the role of infectious diseases in our cultural, economic,… Read more

  • The Foundling Hospital and Dr. Richard Mead

    JMS PearceHull, England [Mead] physician who lived more in the broad sunshine of life than almost any man– Dr. Samuel Johnson (Boswell’s Johnson IV. 222) The Foundling Hospital in Lamb’s Conduit Field in Bloomsbury (Fig 1) was established in 1739 to provide a safe home… Read more

  • The Mind of Covid-19

    Terrance JonesChicago, Illinois, United States The Mind of Covid-19 reflects and recalls the one year and two months stuck in my home during the pandemic. Lots of reflection, creation, curiosity, worry, stress, fear, loss, and inspiration. An explosion of color depicts the ugliness of the… Read more

  • William Budd and typhoid fever

    William Budd. From lithograph published by A.B. Black, 1862. Wellcome Collection. CC BY 4.0. In the year 1811 when William Budd was born, medicine was still in its dark ages. Physicians dressed in black and wore top hats, surgeons operated in street clothes without anesthesia,… Read more

  • Forgotten pioneers of pediatric cardiac surgery

    Jayant RadhakrishnanDarien, Illinois, United States Credit for pioneering heart surgery in children is primarily given to Robert Gross of Boston Children’s Hospital and Alfred Blalock at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. However, two Chicago surgeons who saved many lives with their innovations in the same… Read more