Artistic representations of disease are widespread yet largely ignored in health psychology research. In this paper we use two infectious diseases, tuberculosis and the plague, as tracers to study how infectious diseases are represented in novels, films, paintings, and songs. They were represented especially in terms of their causes and seriousness. Studying how diseases are represented in various art forms extends our understanding of how they are socially constructed. This knowledge can also be incorporated into the training of health care providers to sensitize them to issues in patient care.
Medicine in the Arts , Plague , Tuberculosis , Humans
The Netherlands awoke with a shock to some highly publicized cases of clients suffering second-degree burns from inadequate use of laser technology for hair removal in the beauty salon. Aestheticians are increasingly offering risky and sometimes irreversible skin-enhancing treatments. Because of the complexity and hazards of the beauty profession and its proximity at times to the domain of health care, it merits attention from bioethicists. This article presents an overview of ethical issues arising within the everyday practice of the beauty salon, based on discussions with aestheticians and a survey, and reports on the development of the world's first national ethics guidelines for aestheticians. Key recommendations pertain to age limits, informed consent, confidentiality, tensions arising from aestheticians' dual role as care providers and entrepreneurs, and the management of incidental findings. This article directs scholarly effort at ethical issues in the beauty salon, and invites further discussion of a hitherto underserved field.
Beauty , Bioethical Issues , Codes of Ethics , Occupations , Age Factors , Confidentiality , Health Personnel , Humans , Incidental Findings , Informed Consent , Netherlands , Professional Role
The nature and severity of respiratory disease are typically expressed with biomedical measures such as pulmonary function, X-rays, blood tests, and other physiological characteristics. The impact of respiratory illness on the sufferer, however, is reflected in the stories patients tell: to themselves, their social environment, and their health care providers. Behavioral research often applies standardized questionnaires to assess this subjective impact. Additional approaches to sampling patients' experience of respiratory illness may, however, provide important and clinically useful information that is not captured by other methods. Herein, we assert that novels, poems, movies, music, and paintings may represent a rich, experiential understanding of the patient's point of view of asthma, cystic fibrosis, lung cancer, and tuberculosis. Examination of these works illustrates the broad range and major impact of respiratory illness on patients' quality of life. We suggest that examining how illness is represented in various art forms may help patients, their social environment, and their health care providers in coping with the illness and in humanizing medical care. Medical students' clinical skills may benefit when illness experiences as expressed in art are incorporated in the medical curriculum. More generally, Narrative Health Psychology, Narrative Medicine, and Medical Humanities deserve more attention in education, training, and clinical care of (respiratory) physicians, medical students, and other health care professionals.
Medicine in Literature , Medicine in the Arts , Motion Pictures , Music , Paintings , Poetry as Topic , Respiratory Tract Diseases/psychology , Humans
Fiction (i.e. novels, short stories, and movies) provides an opportunity for imaginative moral reflection and can serve as a basis for moral argument. Narratives play a role in moral reasoning because they are exemplars as well as tests. Those who care for sick people, should be interested in patient's and literary stories. Exploring the representation of gastroenterological ailments in fiction gives insight in the experience of undergoing colonoscopy, farting, pain, the borders of intimacy, hygiene and the lack of it, taboos and the doctor-patient-relationship. Included authors are, among others: Michel Faber, Alan Bennett, Charles Bukowski, Charlotte Roche and James Joyce. Several movies are discussed as well. Though in general gastroenterological problems don't seem often at foreground in fiction, in some cases they are represented in a more symbolic way, and touch upon some fundamental aspects of the human condition.
Ethical Analysis , Gastroenterology/ethics , Narration , Philosophy, Medical , Humans , Reading
Could the novel fulfil a role in the neurologist's daily clinical practice? A good book or story can indeed make the neurology patient's experiences clearer, both for the patient and for the doctor. The novel is no longer just an end-product or form of art, but a method for better understanding disease and experiences. Several neurological examples are given, such as migraine, Parkinson's disease and ALS. The narrative opens a perspective on disease 'from the inside'. Neurology lends itself to a narrative approach, because it is primarily a field to which the patient's story is central.
Books , Empathy , Narration , Physician-Patient Relations , Humans , Neurology
Pierre Vinken (1927) began his professional career as a consultant neurosurgeon and ended it as chairman of the Reed Elsevier publishing company. Only a few insiders have ever known, however, that, in his younger days, he was an anonymous contributor to Vrij Nederland, at the time one of the two most widely read weekly newspapers in the Netherlands. During the period 1959-1963, the paper published a total of 175 of his articles. Though dealing with the wide range of subjects, ranging from linguistics to iconology, the majority of them were devoted to aspects of medical science. In retrospect, he was remarkably modern in the focus he brought to bear: spread the net wide in the choice of subject; rely strictly on tested research; seek always to keep an open mind; think logically and attack prejudice and superstition. Vinken's name does not feature in any work on Dutch journalism. However, bearing in mind the fact that he made his debut in the field as long as 14 May 1959, he must rightly be considered to be one of the pioneers of scientific journalism in the Netherlands.
Biological Science Disciplines/history , Journalism, Medical/history , Periodicals as Topic/history , History, 20th Century , Netherlands
