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Portraits of the insane : Thâeodore Gâericault and the subject of psychotherapy
In the early 1820s, in the gloomy aftermath of the 1789 Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, the French Romantic painter Thâeodore Gâericault (1791-1824) made five portraits of patients in an asylum or clinic. No depictions of madness before or since can compare with them for humanity, straightforwardness and immediacy. Why were they painted? For whom? Art-historical ways of accounting for them open up questions about the nature of psychoanalytic interpretation. The portraits challenge us to find responses in ourselves to the face and the embodied mysteries of the other person, and to our own internal (unconscious, disavowed) otherness: in this sense, Gâericault was a \"painter-analyst\". The challenge could not be more urgent, in our world of suspicion of the stranger, and of the medicalization of madness. The book sketches the history of this last process, from the Enlightenment through to the Revolution and its public health policies, to the birth of the asylum in its interface with the penal system. But there was also a new medico-philosophical conviction that the mad were never wholly mad, and their suffering and disturbance might best be addressed through relationship and speech. For contemporaries like Stendhal and Hegel, we are all split subjects. The portraits, painted during a period of unprecedented social, cultural and economic transformation, on the threshold of modernity, register a critical moment in the history of psychotherapy and psychiatry, and of the human subject itself. They help us grasp and give proper value to some of the living roots of psychoanalysis.
Book
Were camptodactyly and boutonniere deformity considered pathological in late fifteenth century Italy? Evidence from the sculptures of Francesco di Simone Ferrucci (1437–1493)
Representations of disease in Renaissance paintings have been discussed in medical literature, in the context of historical epidemiology, as potential sources of information about the incidence and appearance of particular conditions in earlier times. The present study seeks to show how Renaissance art can also contribute to historical nosology by casting light on the question of whether particular conditions recognized as abnormal today were understood as pathological in the past. The hands of two Renaissance Madonna figures are examined in sculptures produced by Francesco di Simone Ferrucci (1437–1493). Because the Virgin Mary was considered physically perfect by believers, and because Francesco was a successful producer of devotional sculptures for a wide audience, it is highly probable that any abnormal conditions found in the hands of Madonnas sculpted by him would not have been regarded as pathological at the time. The sculptures examined appear to depict camptodactyly and boutonniere deformity in the hands of Madonna figures. These uncommon conditions are also found in Renaissance artworks that show other individuals of high social status, but their presence in the hands of the Madonna gives the strongest indication that they were not considered pathological, due to religious belief in the Virgin’s physical perfection. Examination of Madonna figures in late fifteenth century Renaissance art can contribute to historical nosology by identifying abnormal conditions that were not regarded as pathological at the time. The examples of such conditions identified in the present study are camptodactyly and boutonniere deformity.
Journal Article
Popular fiction and brain science in the late nineteenth century
\"In the 1860s and 1870s, leading neurologists used animal experimentation to establish that discrete sections of the brain regulate specific mental and physical functions. These discoveries had immediate medical benefits: David Ferrier's detailed cortical maps, for example, saved lives by helping surgeons locate brain tumors and haemorrhages without first opening up the skull. These experiments both incited controversy and stimulated creative thought, because they challenged the possibility of an extra-corporeal soul. This book examines the cultural impact of neurological experiments on late Victorian Gothic romances by Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, H. G. Wells and others. Novels like Dracula and Jekyll and Hyde expressed the deep-seated fears and visionary possibilities suggested by cerebral localization research and offered a corrective to the linearity and objectivity of late Victorian neurology\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Civilization and Disease
Originally published in 1943, Civilization and Disease was based on a series of lectures that the medical historian Henry E. Sigerist delivered at Cornell University in 1940. Now back in print, the book is a wide-ranging account of the importance of social factors on health and illness and the impact that disease has had on societies throughout human history. Despite considerable advances in both medicine and historiography, Civilization and Disease remains a landmark work in the history of medicine and a fascinating look at, first, civilization as a factor in the genesis and spread of disease, and second, the effects of disease on such aspects of civilization as economics, social life, law, philosophy, religion, science, and the arts. In a new foreword written for this edition, Elizabeth Fee outlines Sigerist's life, works, and legacy as a historian, a teacher, and an advocate for universal health care, hailing Civilization and Disease as \"an excellent introduction to Sigerist's work.\"
eBook
Images as catalysts for meaning-making in medical pain encounters: a multidisciplinary analysis
The challenge for those treating or witnessing pain is to find a way of crossing the chasm of meaning between them and the person living with pain. This paper proposes that images can strengthen agency in the person with pain, particularly but not only in the clinical setting, and can create a shared space within which to negotiate meaning. It draws on multidisciplinary analyses of unique material resulting from two fine art/medical collaborations in London, UK, in which the invisible experience of pain was made visible in the form of co-created photographic images, which were then made available to other patients as a resource to use in specialist consultations. In parallel with the pain encounters it describes, the paper weaves together the insights of specialists from a range of disciplines whose methodologies and priorities sometimes conflict and sometimes intersect to make sense of each other’s findings. A short section of video footage where images were used in a pain consultation is examined in fine detail from the perspective of each discipline. The analysis shows how the images function as ‘transactional objects’ and how their use coincides with an increase in the amount of talk and emotional disclosure on the part of the patient and greater non-verbal affiliative behaviour on the part of the doctor. These findings are interpreted from the different disciplinary perspectives, to build a complex picture of the multifaceted, contradictory and paradoxical nature of pain experience, the drive to communicate it and the potential role of visual images in clinical settings.
Journal Article
The sick rose : or; disease and the art of medical illustration
The Sick Rose is a beautifully gruesome and strangely fascinating visual tour through disease in an age before colour photography. This stunning volume, combining detailed illustrations of afflicted patients from some of the world's rarest medical books, forms an unforgettable and profoundly human reminder of mankind's struggle with disease. Incorporating historic maps, pioneering charts and contemporary case notes, Richard Barnett's evocative overview reveals the fears and obsessions of an era gripped by epidemics.
eBook
When the nurse becomes a patient : a story in words and images
In the summer of 2013, Cortney Davis, a nurse practitioner and author who often writes about her interactions with patients, underwent routine one-day surgery. A surgical mishap led to a series of life-altering and life-threatening complications, resulting in two prolonged hospital stays and a lengthy recovery. During twenty-six days in the hospital, Davis experienced how suddenly a caregiver can become a care receiver and what it's like to be \"on the other side of the sickbed.\" As a nurse, she was accustomed to suffering and to the empathy such witnessing can evoke, but as a patient she learned new and transforming lessons in pain, fear, loneliness, abandonment, and dependency; in the fragility of health and life; in the necessity of family support; and, ultimately, in the importance of gratitude. Once at home, Davis wanted to respond to her illness creatively through her writing, but the details seemed too intense, too raw for words. As her recovery progressed, she found release in painting, discovering an immediate connection between heart and hand, between memory and canvas. In a series of twelve paintings, she reenvisioned episodes of her illness, moments that remained and replayed in her consciousness, ultimately providing an education in health care more resonant and more authentic than what she had found in nursing textbooks. Before, serving as a nurse in intensive care, oncology, and women's health, Davis believed that she understood what hospitalized patients might be experiencing and how they might be coping. Her own illness taught her how little she truly knew and how important it is that all caregivers-professionals and family members alike-become aware of the physical and the inner emotional needs of their seriously ill patients. After the twelve paintings were completed, Davis wrote brief commentaries for each image. She used her
remembrances to clarify and expand on her artwork, thereby making her personal story accessible to others. While every patient's journey and every caregiver's challenges are unique, these intimate and revealing paintings and reflections offer a glimpse into the universal aspects of illness and recovery.
eBook
Neurology of the arts
This book is the first attempt to provide a basis for the interaction of the brain and nervous system with painting, music and literature. The introduction deals with the problems of creativity and which parts of the brain are involved. Then an overview of art presents the multiple facets, such as anatomy, and the myths appearing in ancient descriptions of conditions such as polio and migraine. The neurological basis of painters like Goya and van Gogh is analysed. Other chapters in the section on art cover da Vinci's mechanics and the portrayal of epilepsy. The section on music concerns the parts of the brain linked to perception and memory, as well as people who cannot appreciate music, and the effect of music on intelligence and learning (the Mozart effect). The section on literature relates to Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, Conan Doyle, James Joyce and the poetry of one of England's most famous neurologists, Henry Head.
eBook
Risk and Regulation at the Interface of Medicine and the Arts
This book brings together an edited selection of presentations from the Association for Medical Humanities annual conference 2015, held at Dartington Hall, UK, that address the question: How might innovative performing arts help to develop medical education and practice? It includes papers and accounts of both keynote talks and performances, presenting cutting-edge activity, thinking and research in the medical and health humanities. The volume also offers an archive of a visual arts exhibition focused on surgical themes that ran in conjunction with the conference. An introductory chapter situates the conference in the context of Dartington Hall's radical education tradition, while an overview chapter discusses the theme of 'risk and regulation' in contemporary culture, with particular reference to medicine and healthcare. Part I: Selected Keynotes covers three key areas in the conversation between medicine and the arts: 'chance' in health and illness; the contested role of simulation in art and medical education; and risks in introducing arts-based learning to medical students. Part II: Performances archives three innovative and challenging performance pieces presented at the conference, with commentaries and discussion, including a closely-argued philosophical justification for performance art. Part III: Histories offers a historical gaze on: anatomical illustration; plagues represented through art; and poetry written in combat. Part IV: For some, just living is a risk offers a photo-essay on Haiti's symptoms; a photo-record on the regulation of foodways for those living at the edge of subsistence; a medical student's wry account of scepticism towards the use of arts in medical education; and a photo-essay concerning the care of a child with complex disabilities and special needs. Part V: Exhibition 'At the Sharp End of Bluntness' archives
deliberately provocative visual work addressing surgical themes and living with cystic fibrosis as 'Slow Death'.
eBook