Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Summer 2018

  • Yes, I’m positive

    George W. Christopher Ada, Michigan, United States     Early tests for HIV were highly sensitive but often gave false-positive results. The Western blot introduced in 1987 still gave 10-20% indeterminate results. Newer tests have improved accuracy and accessibility. Image from US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A quick glance at the afternoon clinic…

  • Saul Farber on St. Helena

    Peter BerczellerDordogne, France I went to see Saul Farber in his new office in the spring of 2000. For some forty years he had been our chief, our role model, the long-term creative force behind the department of medicine and indeed the entire medical school, the man who personified the core values of our institution.…

  • Anatomy and pathology in Zurbarán’s Jewish and Christian figures

    Stephen MartinDurham, England, United Kingdom Francisco de Zurbarán (1598–1664) was painter to King Phillip IV of Spain and Portugal and a contemporary of Velázquez. He was the leading religious artist of the Spanish counter-reformation.1 A highly-skilled pioneer of the light-dark chiaroscuro technique, his prominent works include The flight into Egypt, several canvases of Saint Francis…

  • Against anatomy lab

    Harriet SquierHaslett, Michigan, United States Make no mistake, dissecting a human cadaver is revolting. When we medical students opened the cadaver bag, we were instructed to keep the head covered to prevent it from drying out. It is difficult to dissect tissues that are completely dry. We peeled back the skin on the chest and…

  • Starvation as metaphor

    Michael Shulman  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States   “Boy and Girl at Cahera” (1847) Image of the Great Famine for middle-class readers of London Illustrated News.  The mystery of Food Increased till I abjured it And dine without Like God — Emily Dickinson Susan Sontag’s 1978 essay Illness as Metaphor,1 published in serial form in The…

  • The elimination game

    Kelley Yuan Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA   Anorexia nervosa. Nouvelle Iconographie de la Salpêtrière. “Un cas d’anorexie hysterique” 1900. Xylophone ribs and sunken cheeks. A body desperate for food paired with a mind determined to starve. Here lies anorexia nervosa’s cruel paradox, of a body betrayed and a brain allowing it to waste away. The protest…

  • The morning ritual

    Peter H. Berczeller Dordogne, France   Years ago, I heard the adage: “When you get up in the morning, and you don’t see your name in the Times obituaries, you’re good for another day.” I was young then, with no understanding of the seriousness beneath this seemingly witty remark. As a medicine resident, I was no…

  • Negotiation

    Jack Riggs Morgantown, West Virginia, USA   Kuwaiti – U.S. military medical cooperation. Author is fourth individual from left in back row. “We appreciate what you Americans have done for us in the past. But we will not allow you to come into our hospital uniformed and armed.” It was their country, their hospital, and…

  • Self and the Phenomenon of Life: A Biologist Examines Life from Molecules to Humanity

    Ramon LimIowa City, Iowa, United States Since an early age, I have often wondered who we are (individually as well as a species) and what might be our place in the universe. I believe that the ultimate goal of science, apart from its utilitarian role, is to help us gain insight into what life is…

  • Gluttony: rise, fall, and resurgence of a capital sin

    F. Gonzalez-Crussi Chicago, Illinois, United States     Figure 1. The emblem of gluttony as a woman with protruding belly, carrying wine, and accompanied by a pig. Left: Georg Pencz (1500-1550). Right: Jacques Callot (1592-1635). The notion of gluttony (gula in Latin, meaning throat, gullet) was born among the Desert Fathers. These were hermits who…