Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Winter 2014

  • The second chart

    Irene Martinez Chicago, Illinois, United States   Caption: Photography by Keith Williamson When I arrived at the clinic, I was already behind schedule. I got up at 5:30 to get ready, but with my daughter’s end of the year school trip made things more complicated. I was already rushing when I got to the clinic,…

  • Breathless: philosophical lessons from respiratory illness

    Havi Carel United Kingdom   It is 12:28. I have just parked my car in a lucky empty space just outside my office. I have a meeting at 12:30. I am texting with one hand and feeling for my inhaler in my coat pocket with the other. I pull the inhaler out, place it in…

  • Healing through laughter

    Farrah BuiNew Jersey, United States “If there is one thing to know about me, it’s that I refuse to ever eat honey again,” Ben explains to the audience. Immediately, looks of confusion and raised eyebrows appear among the faces in the crowd. “Don’t worry, it’s not just cause I have diabetes!” he tells them as…

  • Suffering and empathy in the stories of Anton Chekhov and their relevance to healthcare today

    Peter McCann London Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)   Throughout his life, Anton Chekhov was often faced with the reality of suffering in human existence. His family’s bankruptcy and life of poverty in Moscow influenced young Anton’s thoughts about suffering and degradation in society, and his brief period of medical practice in Moscow provided him with enough…

  • Portrait of a peasant

    Alexandru Gh. SonocSibiu, Romania This peasant is shown wearing a green shirt, decorated on the shoulders with a red line and at the neck with a white lace collar, as well as a wide brown hat. He is disfigured by a tumor on the right side of his face. A second tumor is located on…

  • Medical art from the Brukenthal Museum, Sibiu, Romania

    Alexandru Sonoc Sibiu, Romania   Several works in the European collection of the Brukenthal National Museum are of interest to the history of medicine. Most of them are works by Dutch and Flemish painters, mainly from the 17th-century: The Summer by Jakob Jordaens, The Trapped Peasant by Adriaen van der Venne, The Bloodletting and The…

  • The Summer

    Alexandru Gh. Sonoc Sibiu, Romania   The Summer Jakob Jordaens (1593-1678) Paper on fire tree panel, 32 x 62 cm Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu, Romania   On the right side, darkened perhaps to suggest an approaching storm, a woman with bare breast is looking up to the left. On the left side a younger woman is…

  • Architecture and the French hospital

    Sarah HartleyGarches, France Until I left England to work in France, it had never occurred to me that the architecture of a hospital was intimately linked to geography and that its cultural history was literally written on its walls. Walking around Parisian hospitals, usually with a hospital plan in my hand in a desperate attempt…

  • The brain

    Jorge LazareffLos Angeles, California, United States I saw the painting at the warehouses at 50 Moganshan Road, which have been transformed into a sui-generis art district. The layout of the place allows for a chaotic meandering, from a wide space with art on the walls and solicitous employees standing by screen desktops, to a maze…

  • Screenwriting: psychiatry in reverse

    Stephen Potts Edinburgh, United Kingdom   Introduction Good Will Hunting publicity poster The subject matter of medicine is inherently dramatic. Decisions taken by professionals who are highly skilled, but still human and therefore flawed, are applied to suffering patients in situations of pressure and can have radically diverse outcomes: life or death; disability or cure:…