Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Solitude

  • The loneliness of the long-living doctor

    Peter Arnold Sydney, Australia   Study of the head of an old man. Peter Paul Rubens. between 1610 and 1615. Kunsthistorisches Museum. Via Wikimedia. A noticeable phenomenon of the twenty-first century is the increasing frequency of friendships between older men. The importance of such friendships to both mental and physical health has been well documented.1,2,3…

  • Book review: John Keats’ Medical Notebook

    Arpan K. Banerjee Solihull, United Kingdom   Cover of John Keats’ Medical Notebook by Hrileena Ghosh. February 23, 2021 marked the bicentenary of the death of the great Romantic poet John Keats. Born in 1795, Keats lived a tragically short life, dying at the age of only twenty-five. It is perhaps little known that he…

  • Solitude

    Donna Pucciani Wheaton, Illinois, United States   You’ve got to walk that lonesome valley . . . —American Folk Song   Photo by Donna Pucciani We learn to be alone for months when microscopic murder floats in the air like so much smoke. We learn to fear the passing stranger whose only misdeed is walking…