In her book, Doctors’ Stories, Montgomery Hunter discusses the pervasiveness of narratives (e.g., diagnosis, cases study, rounds) in informing not only the medical encounter, but also medicine as an institution: “Patients’ stories within medicine are more or less pared-down autobiographical accounts that chronicle the events of illness and sketch out a commonsense etiology. . ….
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Rugged Terrain: Social Association in My Own Country and Its Implications for Health Humanities Work in Appalachia
“…I heard of a new medical school: East Tennessee State University. It had started a residency program in internal medicine. As residents we would rotate through the Mountain Home Veterans Administration Medical Center (the “VA)—a veritable town within the town of Johnson City—as well as the adjacent Johnson City Medical Center (the “Miracle Center”) a…
Homeplace Poems: on Black Feminist Interior Design and Liberatory Living
This piece is part of our “Critical Creative Series,” in which, once a semester, a regular or guest author adopts a creative form (literary, visual, or audio) to reflect a strain of critical inquiry in the medical and health humanities. . . . introduction As a 2024 Poet-in-Residence at the Museum of the African Diaspora…
Our Lives, Our Stories
When I entered a bright white room at the Madison VA Hospital this summer, I expected to spend roughly the following hour interviewing a veteran patient named John about his life. Before knocking on the door, I quickly double-checked a diagram of room assignments and the list of potential topics I had drafted, fidgeting with…
Between Killing and Curing: Doctors in Literary Depictions of the Russian Revolution and Civil War
The historian Roy Porter observes that “We turn doctors into heroes, yet feel equivocal about them […] Even in Greek times opinions about medicine were mixed; the word pharmakos meant both remedy and poison – ‘kill’ and ‘cure’ were apparently indistinguishable” (4). This paradoxical mixture of killing and curing is perhaps nowhere more visible than…
A letter to Professor Donald
A letter to Professor Donald This letter was inspired by the Early Ultrasound Scan, in the Royal College Of Physicians & Surgeons of Glasgow Archive (Catalogue number: RCPSG 65/3/1-2) Dear Professor Donald, When I saw the ultrasound scan, I thought of you: Ian Donald, obstetric pioneer from Glasgow. There are a few things I would…
“Phantom Fat”: Motivation Models and Gothic Pedagogy
As of writing this, I can buy a 1lb or 5lb silicone “fat replica” on Amazon for anywhere between $29.99 and $139.99. They’re lumpy, brain-like oval shaped masses in an almost glowing yellow, sometimes with small red threads representing blood vessels visible through their semi-opacity. The names of each product link has Amazon’s signature word…
A Haunting Refrain: “I’m On My Way Out” and Appalachian Fatalism
The spaces became familiar to me, cubbies with a recliner, poles hung with bags of fluid, the steady beeps of the equipment monitoring the patients. But while the experience left many impressions on me, there is one phrase that haunts me still: I’m on my way out. Said instead of “I’m dying,” a more direct…
After Yang and Posthumanist Care
After Yang and Posthumanist Care “So if you don’t mind, we’re just gonna do a full check-up, and we’re gonna restore Yang as best we can… It won’t help with his ‘off’ state, but it should help with his preservation.” One family’s search for the ultimate “fix” is the central conflict in filmmaker Kogonada’s 2021…
Review of Laughing Boy, by Stephen Unwin, adapted from Sara Ryan’s memoir, Justice for Laughing Boy
“When the shit hits the fan, they blame the mum.” I will never forget these words. These are Dr Sara Ryan’s, an academic with extensive expertise in disability studies and autism. Her impassioned message is at the heart of Stephen Unwin’s play, Laughing Boy. Ryan’s autistic son, Connor Sparrowhawk, known affectionately by his family as…