writing - Hektoen International

Love as illness: Symptomatology

February 23, 2022

Frank Gonzalez-Crussi Chicago, Illinois, United States Figure 1. Sappho as imagined by Raphael in the fresco known as Parnassus in the Raphael rooms in the Palace of the Vatican (c. 1509–1511). She appears in a corner of the fresco, holding a scroll with her name. Via Wikimedia. Is love a disease? I mean erotic, […]

Why do physicians write so badly?

April 26, 2021

Peter Arnold Sydney, Australia Photo by Suzy Hazelwood from Pexels An old joke is that pharmacists are the only people who can read physicians’ handwriting. This piece is not about handwriting, but about writing style. Compared with great medical authors, like Somerset Maugham, Conan Doyle, Anton Chekhov, John Keats, and Friedrich von Schiller, most […]

Women in the medical profession: the trial of Jacoba Felicie de Almania

June 16, 2020

Mariel Tishma Chicago, Illinois, United States A meeting of doctors at the university of Paris. From the “Chants royaux” manuscript, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. BNF, Français 1537, fol. 27v. Source In November 1322 a group of folk healers and empirics were put on trial by the Faculty of Medicine from the University of Paris. Their […]

Notes from writing a character with a bleeding disorder

January 22, 2020

Nicole Hebdon Buffalo, New York, United States “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” –Ernest Hemingway. Photograph by Suzy Hazelwood. Taken from pexels.com I have read two books that feature characters with bleeding disorders. The first was a used paperback with a neon green and […]

Richard Dadd: art and madness

August 26, 2019

JMS Pearce Hull, England Portrait of British painter Richard Dadd (1817-1886) showing painting Contradiction: Oberon and Titania. Henry Hering. circa 1856. Source Unknown. Public Domain due to age. Is there anything so extravagant as the imaginations of men’s brains? Where is the head that has no chimeras in it? . . . Our knowledge, […]

“Something monomanical”: obsession and the unity of effect

April 30, 2019

Jack Rosser Herefordshire, England, United Kingdom A portrait of Poe in 1848, not long prior to his passing in 1849. The concept of monomania first gathered popularity in France at the beginning of the nineteenth century; the term “referred to a type of mental disorder in which a person would have fixed, and often […]

Scribonius Largus

January 30, 2017

Felipe Fernandez del Castillo Massachusetts, United States We don’t know much about Scribonius Largus. The first century Roman physician has been overshadowed by more famous medical authors like Celsus, Pliny, and Galen. Dismissed by one scholar as “second rate”,1 Scribonius has lurked for centuries in the footnotes of history textbooks and journal articles, and […]

The power of the creative

January 30, 2017

Margo Davis New York, United States The names used within this article have been changed to ensure patient privacy. The question is often asked of me, “What in the world do you do as an artist-in-residence in a hospital?” Over time, my answer has crystallized to: “I bring the creative process to sick kids.” […]

Healing hidden wounds: a personal perspective

January 30, 2017

Jean Cozier Chicago, Illinois, United States When we’re small and we hurt ourselves, we usually find ways to fix it. We may cry a little, suck the wound, or run to Mommy so that she can kiss it and make it better. But what if we don’t know for sure we’ve been hurt? If […]

An evolving journey: Writing as healing art

January 30, 2017

Amy Webb Pawleys Island, South Carolina, United States Photography by Elena Levitskaya, RN It started simply enough. Soon after my diagnosis, a friend and fellow breast cancer survivor counseled me about protecting a space for healing. We discussed the need to create that delicate balance of keeping a network of friends and family informed […]