Tag: Winter 2018
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The resident
Sarah de Forest Chicago, Illinois, USA The Operation, Christian Schad He is a handsome man, no one can deny it, and he has a pleasant smile. In this terrible place, its inhabitants ravaged by hunger and disease, he always looks as though he just came from the barber, and his men know that slovenliness…
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Why did Darwin drop out of medical school?
Richard Brown and Thalia Garvock-de MontbrunHalifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Erasmus Alvey (Ras) Darwin, the elder brother of Charles Darwin, completed six months of hospital training in Edinburgh in 1825-26 and then went to London to study at the Great Windmill Street School of Anatomy.1,7 Charles Darwin studied medicine at Edinburgh University from 1825-1827 and then…
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The color of organ markets
Howsikan Kugathasan Toronto, Ontario, Canada Dark Room, Single Light: the contrast between black and white markets Nawaraj Pariyar from Nepal is promised thirty thousand dollars for “a piece of meat” that will grow back. Only later does he find out that he was duped twice. He received less than 1% of his promised money…
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Six years and counting
Libanos Redda Seattle, Washington, United States The unnerving level of vigilance that anxiety patients maintain For the past six years, I have not been myself. Then again, the memory of my former self has grown a bit foggy over the years. Perhaps things were always this bad. Perhaps I have not changed much at…
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Bugs and people: When epidemics change history
Salvatore Mangione Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Albrecht Dürer, woodcut, c.1496–8 From left to right, Death (with a trident), Famine (with scales), War (with a sword) and Plague (with the arrows of pestilence) are crushing under their horses’ hooves all those unfortunate enough to stand in their wake. In…
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Seeing things differently: a reflection on clinical photography
Michaela Clark Cape Town, South Africa Image courtesy of the Pathology Learning Centre, University of Cape Town Looking into the face of a patient is a necessary part of the clinical experience. Yet despite the physical proximity achieved in the doctor’s office, on the operating table, or in the petri dish, it is only…
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How to treat a broken heart: An instruction guide
Kate Baggott Ontario, Canada Human beings are callous creatures. We pursue our own agendas, desires, and happiness at the expense of those who would love us. We have all done it. We have all disputed the purity of another’s love. We have all had our hearts broken in turn. We all know this state;…
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The monarch, the musician, and the medic
Jesús Ramírez-Bermúdez Translated by Ilana Dann Luna Mexico City, Mexico The Monarch, The Musician and the Medic, Jose Agustin Ramirez Bermudez. Location: Jesus Ramirez Bermudez Private Collection The history of medicine bestows us with unexpected episodes, such as the character of “The Swan King,” whose platonic love for a disgraced musician sparked the artistic transformation…
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Mental health in Michel Foucault’s The Birth of the Clinic and the limits of medical positivism
Taylor Tso St. Louis, Missouri, United States The Madhouse (Casa de locos). Painting by Francisco de Goya. In The Birth of the Clinic, Michel Foucault traces the history of our present-day understanding of disease. One of the most significant and more recent problems this understanding had to confront was the pre-nineteenth century outlook that…
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Geza Csath, in defense of interconnectedness
Gerda Kovacs Aalborg, Denmark Enrique Simonet, La autopsia, Oil on canvas. Height: 177 cm (69.7 in.). Width: 291 cm (114.6 in). Museo de Málaga, Málaga, Andalusia, Spain “I would like to explode, flow, crumble into dust, and my disintegration would be my masterpiece.” – Emil Cioran, On the Heights of Despair Geza Csath, a…