Dr Mitch Blair, Professor Sarah Stewart-Brown, Dr Tony Waterston, and Dr Rachel Crowther
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199547500
- eISBN:
- 9780191720123
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199547500.001.0001
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health
Despite children making up around a quarter of the population, the first edition of this book was the first to focus on a public health approach to the health and sickness of children and young ...
More
Despite children making up around a quarter of the population, the first edition of this book was the first to focus on a public health approach to the health and sickness of children and young people. It combined clinical and academic perspectives to explore the current state of health of our children, the historical roots of the speciality, and the relationship between early infant and child health on later adult health. Child public health is a rapidly developing field, and is increasingly recognised throughout the world as a major area of focus for population health. Targeting the health of children now is essential if we are to achieve a healthy population as adults. For the second edition the text has been revised and updated with new material on health for all children, global warming, child participation, systems theory, refugees, commissioning, and sustainable development.Less
Despite children making up around a quarter of the population, the first edition of this book was the first to focus on a public health approach to the health and sickness of children and young people. It combined clinical and academic perspectives to explore the current state of health of our children, the historical roots of the speciality, and the relationship between early infant and child health on later adult health. Child public health is a rapidly developing field, and is increasingly recognised throughout the world as a major area of focus for population health. Targeting the health of children now is essential if we are to achieve a healthy population as adults. For the second edition the text has been revised and updated with new material on health for all children, global warming, child participation, systems theory, refugees, commissioning, and sustainable development.
Joel James Shuman and Keith G. Meador
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195154696
- eISBN:
- 9780199784714
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019515469X.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Sickness and suffering are nearly universal human concerns, and many of the world's great religious traditions are devoted, in part, to teaching their adherents how to live faithfully in the midst of ...
More
Sickness and suffering are nearly universal human concerns, and many of the world's great religious traditions are devoted, in part, to teaching their adherents how to live faithfully in the midst of these unhappy realities. A recent spate of scholarly and popular literature suggests that religious activity – what frequently is referred to as spirituality – is a potentially effective means of achieving better health. This contemporary rapprochement between religion and medicine, however, has little in common with the Christian tradition and its concern for the well‐being of the human creature. The God whose presence is displayed to the world in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is not one who may be domesticated by human belief, but who calls into existence a community of friends who care for one another as a sign of God's care for the world.Less
Sickness and suffering are nearly universal human concerns, and many of the world's great religious traditions are devoted, in part, to teaching their adherents how to live faithfully in the midst of these unhappy realities. A recent spate of scholarly and popular literature suggests that religious activity – what frequently is referred to as spirituality – is a potentially effective means of achieving better health. This contemporary rapprochement between religion and medicine, however, has little in common with the Christian tradition and its concern for the well‐being of the human creature. The God whose presence is displayed to the world in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is not one who may be domesticated by human belief, but who calls into existence a community of friends who care for one another as a sign of God's care for the world.
Mike W. Martin
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195304718
- eISBN:
- 9780199786572
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195304713.003.0015
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter begins by illustrating how love can simultaneously involve sickness and immorality, using examples of jealousy, unrequited love, and sadomasochism. It then outlines a virtue-oriented ...
More
This chapter begins by illustrating how love can simultaneously involve sickness and immorality, using examples of jealousy, unrequited love, and sadomasochism. It then outlines a virtue-oriented conception of healthy love, illustrating how moral and therapeutic conceptions of love overlap. The chapter concludes by replying to Robert Bellah's criticisms of the therapeutic trend regarding love.Less
This chapter begins by illustrating how love can simultaneously involve sickness and immorality, using examples of jealousy, unrequited love, and sadomasochism. It then outlines a virtue-oriented conception of healthy love, illustrating how moral and therapeutic conceptions of love overlap. The chapter concludes by replying to Robert Bellah's criticisms of the therapeutic trend regarding love.
Mike W. Martin
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195304718
- eISBN:
- 9780199786572
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195304713.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter discusses responsibility for health in the context of client-therapist relationships. It begins by considering Samuel Butler's Erewhon, a novel that adumbrates the current uncertainty ...
More
This chapter discusses responsibility for health in the context of client-therapist relationships. It begins by considering Samuel Butler's Erewhon, a novel that adumbrates the current uncertainty about responsibilities for health and provokes us to clarify the meaning and foundation of those responsibilities. It then critiques two ideologies about therapy that distort our understanding of responsibilities for health. One ideology concerns the sick role: to be sick is to be an innocent victim, and nonjudgmental therapy implies not holding patients responsible for their sickness. The other concerns science and causation: sick people (as well as healthy ones) are completely determined by biological and environmental forces in ways that remove moral responsibility. It is argued that these ideologies are as inimical to effective therapy as to sound morality.Less
This chapter discusses responsibility for health in the context of client-therapist relationships. It begins by considering Samuel Butler's Erewhon, a novel that adumbrates the current uncertainty about responsibilities for health and provokes us to clarify the meaning and foundation of those responsibilities. It then critiques two ideologies about therapy that distort our understanding of responsibilities for health. One ideology concerns the sick role: to be sick is to be an innocent victim, and nonjudgmental therapy implies not holding patients responsible for their sickness. The other concerns science and causation: sick people (as well as healthy ones) are completely determined by biological and environmental forces in ways that remove moral responsibility. It is argued that these ideologies are as inimical to effective therapy as to sound morality.
Mike W. Martin
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195304718
- eISBN:
- 9780199786572
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195304713.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter addresses the question of whether victims of mental disorders or physical diseases should be blamed for their problems. It explores how an integrated, moral-therapeutic perspective ...
More
This chapter addresses the question of whether victims of mental disorders or physical diseases should be blamed for their problems. It explores how an integrated, moral-therapeutic perspective encourages acceptance of responsibility for health without unfair and destructive forms of blame. The discussion is structured around four health-related contexts: (1) preventing sickness, (2) assigning financial liabilities for health care costs, (3) giving meaning to suffering, and (4) interacting with health care professionals. What we say about blame in one of these contexts is relevant to but does not dictate what we say in other contexts.Less
This chapter addresses the question of whether victims of mental disorders or physical diseases should be blamed for their problems. It explores how an integrated, moral-therapeutic perspective encourages acceptance of responsibility for health without unfair and destructive forms of blame. The discussion is structured around four health-related contexts: (1) preventing sickness, (2) assigning financial liabilities for health care costs, (3) giving meaning to suffering, and (4) interacting with health care professionals. What we say about blame in one of these contexts is relevant to but does not dictate what we say in other contexts.
Mike W. Martin
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195304718
- eISBN:
- 9780199786572
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195304713.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter presents an integrated, moral-therapeutic perspective on alcoholism. Beginning in the mid-1930s, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) invigorated the therapeutic trend by convincing health ...
More
This chapter presents an integrated, moral-therapeutic perspective on alcoholism. Beginning in the mid-1930s, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) invigorated the therapeutic trend by convincing health professionals and the American public that alcoholism is a disease rather than a morally bad habit. In contrast, it is argued that alcoholism is both a sickness and a morally bad habit. It is a disorder of agency that has physical, psychological, and moral dimensions. The chapter concludes that beneath the disagreements about alcoholism, there is agreement on many key points: alcoholism raises major medical and moral issues; alcoholism is not dictated by a simple biochemical abnormality; most alcoholics retain significant episodic control; most have difficulty (in varying degrees) in controlling their overall patterns of drinking and need help; drinkers have responsibility to avoid causing harm, to cooperate in solving their drinking problems, and to make amends for the harm they cause; and self-righteous blaming and destructive self-blaming are objectionable on both moral and therapeutic grounds. These conclusions provide a partial roadmap for thinking about additional forms of wrongdoing as sickness.Less
This chapter presents an integrated, moral-therapeutic perspective on alcoholism. Beginning in the mid-1930s, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) invigorated the therapeutic trend by convincing health professionals and the American public that alcoholism is a disease rather than a morally bad habit. In contrast, it is argued that alcoholism is both a sickness and a morally bad habit. It is a disorder of agency that has physical, psychological, and moral dimensions. The chapter concludes that beneath the disagreements about alcoholism, there is agreement on many key points: alcoholism raises major medical and moral issues; alcoholism is not dictated by a simple biochemical abnormality; most alcoholics retain significant episodic control; most have difficulty (in varying degrees) in controlling their overall patterns of drinking and need help; drinkers have responsibility to avoid causing harm, to cooperate in solving their drinking problems, and to make amends for the harm they cause; and self-righteous blaming and destructive self-blaming are objectionable on both moral and therapeutic grounds. These conclusions provide a partial roadmap for thinking about additional forms of wrongdoing as sickness.
Mike W. Martin
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195304718
- eISBN:
- 9780199786572
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195304713.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter presents an integrated, moral-therapeutic perspective on pathological gambling. Such a perspective emphasizes helping individuals to accept responsibility, where responsibility refers to ...
More
This chapter presents an integrated, moral-therapeutic perspective on pathological gambling. Such a perspective emphasizes helping individuals to accept responsibility, where responsibility refers to obligations rather than to blame. It understands therapy as a special moral context rather than as replacing morality. The perspective highlights how habits shape identity and conduct, how loss of self-control is both an impairment and morally objectionable, and how moral values partly define problem gambling. It makes sense of how addictions, whether or not they involve ingested substances, can be both wrongdoing and sickness.Less
This chapter presents an integrated, moral-therapeutic perspective on pathological gambling. Such a perspective emphasizes helping individuals to accept responsibility, where responsibility refers to obligations rather than to blame. It understands therapy as a special moral context rather than as replacing morality. The perspective highlights how habits shape identity and conduct, how loss of self-control is both an impairment and morally objectionable, and how moral values partly define problem gambling. It makes sense of how addictions, whether or not they involve ingested substances, can be both wrongdoing and sickness.
Mike W. Martin
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195304718
- eISBN:
- 9780199786572
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195304713.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter presents an integrated, moral-therapeutic perspective on crime and punishment. It begins by noting how the morality-therapy dichotomy constricted classical debates about punishment. ...
More
This chapter presents an integrated, moral-therapeutic perspective on crime and punishment. It begins by noting how the morality-therapy dichotomy constricted classical debates about punishment. Using as examples kleptomania (compare compulsive gambling) and drug abuse (compare alcoholism), it is shown how serious crime can be both a wrongdoing and a sickness. These examples are familiar in debates about therapeutic approaches to crime, and they provide continuity with the preceding discussions of addictions. The chapter then discusses the possibility of extending a moral-therapeutic approach to other serious crime, and concludes with comments on legal insanity.Less
This chapter presents an integrated, moral-therapeutic perspective on crime and punishment. It begins by noting how the morality-therapy dichotomy constricted classical debates about punishment. Using as examples kleptomania (compare compulsive gambling) and drug abuse (compare alcoholism), it is shown how serious crime can be both a wrongdoing and a sickness. These examples are familiar in debates about therapeutic approaches to crime, and they provide continuity with the preceding discussions of addictions. The chapter then discusses the possibility of extending a moral-therapeutic approach to other serious crime, and concludes with comments on legal insanity.
Eric J. Cassell
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780195369052
- eISBN:
- 9780199979103
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195369052.001.0001
- Subject:
- Palliative Care, Patient Care and End-of-Life Decision Making
The healing tradition in Western medicine goes back to its Greek origins. What actually constitutes healing is poorly understood even in this first era of cure and advanced medical science. Sickness ...
More
The healing tradition in Western medicine goes back to its Greek origins. What actually constitutes healing is poorly understood even in this first era of cure and advanced medical science. Sickness has usually been defined as the physical result of bodily disease. This is out of date in these times of chronic illness and when the problems of disability and aging are so common. This book uses a different definition: Persons are sick who cannot achieve their goals and purposes because of impairments of function from the molecular to the spiritual that they believe are in the province of medicine. Some impairment may be due to disease, but certainly not all. As the sick person has become the focus of medicine there have been repeated failed attempts to achieve both technologic and humanistic goals. This is wrong; there are not two goals there is only one ultimate goal, the well-being of the patient. All therapeutic interventions toward that end are exercises in healing. There are some impairments of function requiring high technology and others in which the personal actions of healers are most appropriate; proper balance is necessary. This book describes in depth what sickness is, what persons are, and how to understand function and its impairments. Healing skills and actions are explained and the nature of healing for sick and also suffering patients is detailed. The book concludes with a discussion of the moral basis of the patient-healer relationship and finally an understanding of goals.Less
The healing tradition in Western medicine goes back to its Greek origins. What actually constitutes healing is poorly understood even in this first era of cure and advanced medical science. Sickness has usually been defined as the physical result of bodily disease. This is out of date in these times of chronic illness and when the problems of disability and aging are so common. This book uses a different definition: Persons are sick who cannot achieve their goals and purposes because of impairments of function from the molecular to the spiritual that they believe are in the province of medicine. Some impairment may be due to disease, but certainly not all. As the sick person has become the focus of medicine there have been repeated failed attempts to achieve both technologic and humanistic goals. This is wrong; there are not two goals there is only one ultimate goal, the well-being of the patient. All therapeutic interventions toward that end are exercises in healing. There are some impairments of function requiring high technology and others in which the personal actions of healers are most appropriate; proper balance is necessary. This book describes in depth what sickness is, what persons are, and how to understand function and its impairments. Healing skills and actions are explained and the nature of healing for sick and also suffering patients is detailed. The book concludes with a discussion of the moral basis of the patient-healer relationship and finally an understanding of goals.
Paul U. Unschuld
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520257658
- eISBN:
- 9780520944701
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520257658.003.0023
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
The origin of medicine is apparent from other ancient texts such as from a document with the ambitious title “The Nature of Man”. One of the texts was dedicated to “falling sickness,” or epilepsy ...
More
The origin of medicine is apparent from other ancient texts such as from a document with the ambitious title “The Nature of Man”. One of the texts was dedicated to “falling sickness,” or epilepsy under the title “The Sacred Disease,” including the hitherto valid idea that, judging by the sometimes exceedingly strange course of this illness, it must be something divine, coming from the gods. Falling sickness is an illness whose causes, like those of all other illnesses, lie somewhere in nature. The renunciation of the idea that illness is caused by the numinous powers and of the need to treat illness with magic and invocation makes sense. The author of “The Divine Illness” thought no more or less rationally than those who saw falling sickness as something divine. The observation of the sick individual had not produced any evidence for the new view at any rate. For him, only the belief was lost that the gods, whose existence was responsible for the development of falling sickness. He lost this belief not because he had observed an epileptic, or several epileptics, or even a very large number of them. Something else must have caused the change in his view.Less
The origin of medicine is apparent from other ancient texts such as from a document with the ambitious title “The Nature of Man”. One of the texts was dedicated to “falling sickness,” or epilepsy under the title “The Sacred Disease,” including the hitherto valid idea that, judging by the sometimes exceedingly strange course of this illness, it must be something divine, coming from the gods. Falling sickness is an illness whose causes, like those of all other illnesses, lie somewhere in nature. The renunciation of the idea that illness is caused by the numinous powers and of the need to treat illness with magic and invocation makes sense. The author of “The Divine Illness” thought no more or less rationally than those who saw falling sickness as something divine. The observation of the sick individual had not produced any evidence for the new view at any rate. For him, only the belief was lost that the gods, whose existence was responsible for the development of falling sickness. He lost this belief not because he had observed an epileptic, or several epileptics, or even a very large number of them. Something else must have caused the change in his view.
Paul U. Unschuld
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520257658
- eISBN:
- 9780520944701
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520257658.003.0028
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
The idea that a body as an organism has self-interest and tries to heal its own wounds and overcome difficult crises on its own is based on the model image of the self-regulating, autonomous polis. ...
More
The idea that a body as an organism has self-interest and tries to heal its own wounds and overcome difficult crises on its own is based on the model image of the self-regulating, autonomous polis. The polis had transformed itself from the monarchy and the rule of the noble families into a democratic structure that was optimal for the situation of the time, a democracy in which the citizens were the sovereigns of their own fates through their meetings. The polis was a social organism and it was entirely unavoidable that its structures lent the plausibility needed for the explanatory model of the self-healing powers to find general acceptance. The fact that sickness heals on its own is also described repeatedly in the ancient Chinese literature. The ancient Chinese literature does not contain descriptions of the course of a normally fatal illness taking an unanticipated and unexpected turn for the better. China has never known trust in the self-regulating powers of the pan-societal organism.Less
The idea that a body as an organism has self-interest and tries to heal its own wounds and overcome difficult crises on its own is based on the model image of the self-regulating, autonomous polis. The polis had transformed itself from the monarchy and the rule of the noble families into a democratic structure that was optimal for the situation of the time, a democracy in which the citizens were the sovereigns of their own fates through their meetings. The polis was a social organism and it was entirely unavoidable that its structures lent the plausibility needed for the explanatory model of the self-healing powers to find general acceptance. The fact that sickness heals on its own is also described repeatedly in the ancient Chinese literature. The ancient Chinese literature does not contain descriptions of the course of a normally fatal illness taking an unanticipated and unexpected turn for the better. China has never known trust in the self-regulating powers of the pan-societal organism.
Paul U. Unschuld
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520257658
- eISBN:
- 9780520944701
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520257658.003.0063
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
This chapter focuses on Europe at the time when Vesalius demonstrated the reality of human anatomy with the help of his illustrator, Titian's student Jan Steven van Kalkar, a contemporary of the ...
More
This chapter focuses on Europe at the time when Vesalius demonstrated the reality of human anatomy with the help of his illustrator, Titian's student Jan Steven van Kalkar, a contemporary of the sixteenth century. Half a century before van Kalkar's drawings, Leonardo da Vinci, who was a painter, architect, technician, and observer of nature, offered previously unknown views into the reality of the interior of the body. Vesalius' contemporary, Gabriele Fallopio became famous for his discovery of the fallopian tubes. Other contemporaries, Giovanni Battista Canano and Girolamo Fabrizio ab Aquadependente, became famous for discovering and describing the vein valves. Morgagni became famous for showing more clearly than others that the organs were the sites of disease. The anatomists and pathologists made significant efforts to explore the body's interior and brought much reality to light. Medicine covered several terms such as is normal and sick and it also explains the change from normal to sick and return from sick to normality.Less
This chapter focuses on Europe at the time when Vesalius demonstrated the reality of human anatomy with the help of his illustrator, Titian's student Jan Steven van Kalkar, a contemporary of the sixteenth century. Half a century before van Kalkar's drawings, Leonardo da Vinci, who was a painter, architect, technician, and observer of nature, offered previously unknown views into the reality of the interior of the body. Vesalius' contemporary, Gabriele Fallopio became famous for his discovery of the fallopian tubes. Other contemporaries, Giovanni Battista Canano and Girolamo Fabrizio ab Aquadependente, became famous for discovering and describing the vein valves. Morgagni became famous for showing more clearly than others that the organs were the sites of disease. The anatomists and pathologists made significant efforts to explore the body's interior and brought much reality to light. Medicine covered several terms such as is normal and sick and it also explains the change from normal to sick and return from sick to normality.
Paul U. Unschuld
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520257658
- eISBN:
- 9780520944701
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520257658.003.0077
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
This chapter examines the views of experts from the nineteenth century on the reasons that lead to the sickness of an individual. Some believed that pathogens were responsible for sickness. Others ...
More
This chapter examines the views of experts from the nineteenth century on the reasons that lead to the sickness of an individual. Some believed that pathogens were responsible for sickness. Others said that pathogens could invade the body only if a door had been opened beforehand. Robert Koch believed the defense strategy involved washing hands and keeping germs away. The chapter also focuses on the new cleanliness of society. Every individual was responsible for his own morality. The sick person was doubly victimized by the system. First, the environment made someone ill and second, the body's defense system has failed. The environment might have caused so much stress that made a person sick. Sometimes an individual's carelessness openly invites the pathogen. But there are not always a great number of pathogens or self-culpability. The new plausibility diverted responsibility from the lone individual to the system.Less
This chapter examines the views of experts from the nineteenth century on the reasons that lead to the sickness of an individual. Some believed that pathogens were responsible for sickness. Others said that pathogens could invade the body only if a door had been opened beforehand. Robert Koch believed the defense strategy involved washing hands and keeping germs away. The chapter also focuses on the new cleanliness of society. Every individual was responsible for his own morality. The sick person was doubly victimized by the system. First, the environment made someone ill and second, the body's defense system has failed. The environment might have caused so much stress that made a person sick. Sometimes an individual's carelessness openly invites the pathogen. But there are not always a great number of pathogens or self-culpability. The new plausibility diverted responsibility from the lone individual to the system.
Annelise Freisenbruch
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199203956
- eISBN:
- 9780191708244
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199203956.003.0011
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter re-evaluates Fronto's letters within the traditions of epistolary scholarship and against the backdrop of a surge of interest in the epistolarity of the letter collections of antiquity. ...
More
This chapter re-evaluates Fronto's letters within the traditions of epistolary scholarship and against the backdrop of a surge of interest in the epistolarity of the letter collections of antiquity. Because Fronto has a valuable role to play in the call for a reassessment of the Roman letter-writing voice and identity, his correspondence with his pupil, emperor-in-the-making Marcus Aurelius, is examined. The recurring narrative of sickness and health that features in over eighty of the extant letters between Fronto and Marcus Aurelius is examined, with a particular emphasis on the ailments of the former. This chapter explores the pressing question of whether Fronto and Marcus Aurelius' letters should be regarded as simply reflecting the trend of their age to open up about one's state of health, or whether there is something more pointed, more calculated about such an epistolary narrative.Less
This chapter re-evaluates Fronto's letters within the traditions of epistolary scholarship and against the backdrop of a surge of interest in the epistolarity of the letter collections of antiquity. Because Fronto has a valuable role to play in the call for a reassessment of the Roman letter-writing voice and identity, his correspondence with his pupil, emperor-in-the-making Marcus Aurelius, is examined. The recurring narrative of sickness and health that features in over eighty of the extant letters between Fronto and Marcus Aurelius is examined, with a particular emphasis on the ailments of the former. This chapter explores the pressing question of whether Fronto and Marcus Aurelius' letters should be regarded as simply reflecting the trend of their age to open up about one's state of health, or whether there is something more pointed, more calculated about such an epistolary narrative.
Hannah Newton
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199650491
- eISBN:
- 9780191741647
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199650491.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This book is a powerful exploration of the treatment, perception, and experience of illness in childhood, between approximately 1580 and 1720. At this time, the sickness or death of a child was a ...
More
This book is a powerful exploration of the treatment, perception, and experience of illness in childhood, between approximately 1580 and 1720. At this time, the sickness or death of a child was a common occurrence — over a quarter of young people died before the age of fifteen — and yet this subject has received little scholarly attention. The book takes three perspectives: first, it investigates medical understandings and treatments of children. It argues that a concept of ‘children’s physic’ existed amongst doctors and laypeople: the young were thought to be physiologically distinct, and in need of special medicines. Secondly, the book examines the family’s experience, demonstrating that parents devoted considerable time and effort to the care of their sick offspring, and experienced feelings of devastating grief upon their illnesses and deaths. Thirdly, the book takes the strikingly original viewpoint of sick children themselves, offering rare and intimate insights into the emotional, spiritual, physical, and social dimensions of sickness, pain, and death. It asserts that children’s experiences were characterised by profound ambivalence: whilst young patients were often tormented by feelings of guilt, fears of hell, and physical pain, sickness could also be emotionally and spiritually uplifting, and a source of much attention and love from parents.Less
This book is a powerful exploration of the treatment, perception, and experience of illness in childhood, between approximately 1580 and 1720. At this time, the sickness or death of a child was a common occurrence — over a quarter of young people died before the age of fifteen — and yet this subject has received little scholarly attention. The book takes three perspectives: first, it investigates medical understandings and treatments of children. It argues that a concept of ‘children’s physic’ existed amongst doctors and laypeople: the young were thought to be physiologically distinct, and in need of special medicines. Secondly, the book examines the family’s experience, demonstrating that parents devoted considerable time and effort to the care of their sick offspring, and experienced feelings of devastating grief upon their illnesses and deaths. Thirdly, the book takes the strikingly original viewpoint of sick children themselves, offering rare and intimate insights into the emotional, spiritual, physical, and social dimensions of sickness, pain, and death. It asserts that children’s experiences were characterised by profound ambivalence: whilst young patients were often tormented by feelings of guilt, fears of hell, and physical pain, sickness could also be emotionally and spiritually uplifting, and a source of much attention and love from parents.
Danielle Gourevitch
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199582570
- eISBN:
- 9780191595271
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199582570.003.0012
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
Who took care of the Roman child when it was sick? The nanny, a doctor, the mother, both parents, the father alone? The chapter builds on the reflections of Galen, the second founder of Western ...
More
Who took care of the Roman child when it was sick? The nanny, a doctor, the mother, both parents, the father alone? The chapter builds on the reflections of Galen, the second founder of Western medicine after Hippocrates, born in Asia Minor but a practitioner in Rome, where most of his case-histories take place. The study of his vocabulary relating to youth (baby, child, young man) reveals that not a single girl is described, and that it is impossible to compare attitudes towards boys and girls as one can do for Cicero's Marcus and Tullia: is it just a difference in emotional concern? Are ambitions for the sake of the family line and private memories involved? The testimony of a doctor who, by the very nature of his daily work, knew the secrets of the houses he entered, is very useful, especially at the end of a very long practice.Less
Who took care of the Roman child when it was sick? The nanny, a doctor, the mother, both parents, the father alone? The chapter builds on the reflections of Galen, the second founder of Western medicine after Hippocrates, born in Asia Minor but a practitioner in Rome, where most of his case-histories take place. The study of his vocabulary relating to youth (baby, child, young man) reveals that not a single girl is described, and that it is impossible to compare attitudes towards boys and girls as one can do for Cicero's Marcus and Tullia: is it just a difference in emotional concern? Are ambitions for the sake of the family line and private memories involved? The testimony of a doctor who, by the very nature of his daily work, knew the secrets of the houses he entered, is very useful, especially at the end of a very long practice.
Lesel Dawson
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199266128
- eISBN:
- 9780191708688
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199266128.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature, Women's Literature
One of the aspects of women's lovesickness which has caused the most confusion is its relation to three other female maladies: hysteria, green sickness, and uterine fury. Although many critics assume ...
More
One of the aspects of women's lovesickness which has caused the most confusion is its relation to three other female maladies: hysteria, green sickness, and uterine fury. Although many critics assume that lovesickness is a version of one or several of these illnesses, lovesickness, hysteria, green sickness, and uterine fury are understood as separate maladies in the early modern period, with their own unique set of symptoms, stereotypical sufferers, and cultural associations. There is, however, an exception. When a woman's lovesickness develops into full-scale madness (as in the case of Ophelia), her illness is frequently seen to be related to her virginity and menstrual cycle and is thus represented as being similar to uterine disorders. This chapter outlines the medical constructions and literary representations of green sickness, hysteria, and uterine fury, and examines Shakespeare's Hamlet and Shakespeare and Fletcher's The Two Noble Kinsmen, two texts that associate lovesickness with uterine disorders.Less
One of the aspects of women's lovesickness which has caused the most confusion is its relation to three other female maladies: hysteria, green sickness, and uterine fury. Although many critics assume that lovesickness is a version of one or several of these illnesses, lovesickness, hysteria, green sickness, and uterine fury are understood as separate maladies in the early modern period, with their own unique set of symptoms, stereotypical sufferers, and cultural associations. There is, however, an exception. When a woman's lovesickness develops into full-scale madness (as in the case of Ophelia), her illness is frequently seen to be related to her virginity and menstrual cycle and is thus represented as being similar to uterine disorders. This chapter outlines the medical constructions and literary representations of green sickness, hysteria, and uterine fury, and examines Shakespeare's Hamlet and Shakespeare and Fletcher's The Two Noble Kinsmen, two texts that associate lovesickness with uterine disorders.
Joel James Shuman and Keith G. Meador
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195154696
- eISBN:
- 9780199784714
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019515469X.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
The proper Christian response to sickness and suffering is care. Care refers to politics of the Christian community with respect to sickness and suffering, in that it encompasses the entire range of ...
More
The proper Christian response to sickness and suffering is care. Care refers to politics of the Christian community with respect to sickness and suffering, in that it encompasses the entire range of obligations the community has toward the sick person and vice‐versa. God has called women and men into a community of friends who are to offer hospitality to one another and to the world as a sign of God's care for the world. Such care requires the cultivation of virtue, especially the virtue of misericordia.Less
The proper Christian response to sickness and suffering is care. Care refers to politics of the Christian community with respect to sickness and suffering, in that it encompasses the entire range of obligations the community has toward the sick person and vice‐versa. God has called women and men into a community of friends who are to offer hospitality to one another and to the world as a sign of God's care for the world. Such care requires the cultivation of virtue, especially the virtue of misericordia.
Hannah Newton
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199650491
- eISBN:
- 9780191741647
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199650491.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
The Introduction summarises the book’s main arguments, provides definitions of key terms, sets out the parameters of the study, and situates the research in its wider historiographical context. It ...
More
The Introduction summarises the book’s main arguments, provides definitions of key terms, sets out the parameters of the study, and situates the research in its wider historiographical context. It also provides a substantial discussion of the book’s methodology, identifying the types of primary material used in the analysis, and the various limitations and challenges presented by these sources. These include the problems of deducing the child’s experience from the words of adults, the religious and socio-economic biases of the sources, and the complicating issues of censorship, literary convention, and reader reception.Less
The Introduction summarises the book’s main arguments, provides definitions of key terms, sets out the parameters of the study, and situates the research in its wider historiographical context. It also provides a substantial discussion of the book’s methodology, identifying the types of primary material used in the analysis, and the various limitations and challenges presented by these sources. These include the problems of deducing the child’s experience from the words of adults, the religious and socio-economic biases of the sources, and the complicating issues of censorship, literary convention, and reader reception.
Mark Harrison
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199575824
- eISBN:
- 9780191595158
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199575824.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Military History
In Gallipoli medical evacuation was hampered by unrealistic casualty estimates, poor planning of sea-borne evacuation, and a general failure of communication between commanders and medical staff. ...
More
In Gallipoli medical evacuation was hampered by unrealistic casualty estimates, poor planning of sea-borne evacuation, and a general failure of communication between commanders and medical staff. High levels of disease and poor sanitary discipline also meant that sickness rates were far higher than they had been on the Western Front. These medical failures contributed to loss confidence in the management of the campaign and were examined by the Dardanelles Commission appointed in 1916. This chapter explains why medical arrangements were so much worse than on the Western Front, paying particular attention to the exclusion of medical officers from headquarters in the vital planning stages of the operation. It ends by considering the verdict of the Dardanelles Commission and the expectations of witnesses summoned before it.Less
In Gallipoli medical evacuation was hampered by unrealistic casualty estimates, poor planning of sea-borne evacuation, and a general failure of communication between commanders and medical staff. High levels of disease and poor sanitary discipline also meant that sickness rates were far higher than they had been on the Western Front. These medical failures contributed to loss confidence in the management of the campaign and were examined by the Dardanelles Commission appointed in 1916. This chapter explains why medical arrangements were so much worse than on the Western Front, paying particular attention to the exclusion of medical officers from headquarters in the vital planning stages of the operation. It ends by considering the verdict of the Dardanelles Commission and the expectations of witnesses summoned before it.
