Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Summer 2013

  • Making medical education interesting and exciting

    Anuradha JoshiGujarat, India Can we make an education system which will retain smiles on the faces of our children?1— Abdul Kalam At a time when doctors are confronted with a veritable explosion of new facts and information, teachers in medical schools should face up to the challenge of instilling in their students the habit of…

  • A classic case of vanity

    Anthony PapagiannisThessaloniki, Greece In The Citadel, A. J. Cronin’s quintessential medical novel, the hero, Dr. Andrew Manson, still a junior doctor in country practice, is unhappy with his lowly professional status and wonders how he can improve matters. Christine, his devoted wife, urges him to try and obtain a higher medical qualification, perhaps the MRCP,…

  • Ronnie’s gifts

    Ivan Barry PlessMontreal, Canada In 1964 I arrived in London to start a two-and-a-half year fellowship in “Social Pediatrics,” as it was called at the time. A few years earlier, Dr. Bob Haggerty—the undisputed leader in this field—had used some of his Markle Scholarship funds to visit most social medicine units in the United Kingdom…

  • Waiting

    Fergus ShanahanIreland “Nothing happens. Nobody comes, nobody goes. It’s awful.”― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot1 Waiting. It’s an inescapable part of the human condition, perhaps, but it is a big part of the experience of illness. Being ill is being patient. Why otherwise use such a word? “Nobody, not even a lover, waits as intensely…

  • Doctor’s daughter: reflections on a family’s role in a physician’s practice

    Constance PutnamConcord, Massachusetts, United States Schoolyard taunts generally convey an obvious message to all who hear them: “Fatso,” “Four Eyes,” “Slowpoke,” “Dumbo.” One directed at me when I was a child, however, baffled me: “You think you’re so smart, just ’cause your dad’s a doctor!” To be sure, my dad was a doctor, which I…

  • The patient writer: finding meaning in authorship and illness

    Ben MurnaneDublin, Ireland If a person lives with chronic illness, is there “a person” that can be separated from the illness? I suppose many people would say, “Of course there is.” There must be some essence there, some self untainted by disease, some true soul within the sick body. Perhaps the true self, however, is…

  • Théodore Géricault: Kleptomania

    Kleptomania is defined as a recurrent compulsion to steal. Affected persons often act on impulse and are not motivated by economic necessities. They tend not to use the objects they steal but may return them, hide them, or throw them away. They seem to get gratification from the very act of stealing, or at least…

  • Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and medicine: A triumph over infirmity

    William AlburyGeorge WeiszNew South Wales, Australia The “Toulouse-Lautrec Syndrome” Renowned 19th century French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s most obvious association with medicine is through his bone disease. The condition from which he probably suffered was first described in 1954 by the French physician Robert Weissman-Netter. It was named pycnodysostosis in 1962 by Marateaux and Lamy…

  • Darwin at the Chinese opera

    Sam ShusterWoodbridge, Suffolk I am grateful to Milky Man Shan Cheung, Administrative Coordinator at the Chinese Opera Information Centre, and Phil Olsen of Beard Team USA for their help in acquiring research materials and images for this paper. I would also like to thank the National Library of China for the use of its images…

  • Photo journalist — The garden in winter — The violets

    Jeanne BrynerCortland, Ohio, United States Photo journalistLike patio umbrellas our green tomatoes shadethese babies, six bunnies dressed in furry snowsuits.God tells a joke in July and quickly, you must runfor your camera. It’s just this way living out of town,wanting a mess of fried green tomatoes for supper(your grown daughter’s favorite). Remember whenher small feet…