Tag: Winter 2014
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If Cleopatra were alive today, she would be diagnosed as a borderline personality
Jonathan Lewis Chicago, Illinois, United States The death of Cleopatra Reginald Arthur, d. 1896 Roy Miles Gallery, London For anyone with the temerity to write about Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf has this amusing warning: “Shakespeare is flyblown; a paternal government might well forbid writing about him…one may hazard one’s conjectures privately, make one’s notes in…
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A writer and a doctor: What a physician’s account of Auschwitz can teach us about the ethics of story-telling in medicine
Christine HennebergSan Francisco, California, United States In writing this work I am not aiming for any literary success. When I lived through these horrors, which were beyond all imagining, I was not a writer but a doctor. Today, in telling about them, I write not as a reporter but as a doctor.1 The opening “declaration”…
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As I lay dead
James NieCalifornia, United States Death came out of the blue. I spent my last night with a glass of Jameson, grading biology tests and half watching a Matlock Marathon with my wife. We were happy: our daughter was pursuing a law career, our mortgage was paid off, and we had reached a level of comfort…
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Andreas Vesalius’ audience speaks out
Angela BelliQueens, New York, United States Andreas Vesalius’ The Fabric of the Human Body marks not only a milestone in medical history but, by virtue of its extraordinary illustrations, offers ample evidence of medicine and art complementing each other. The frontispiece of the work, depicting an audience witnessing a dissection performed by Vesalius, portrays a…