Tag: Summer 2018
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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.…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…