“In an article edited in Lancet in 1887, which criticized the diagnosis and therapy by phone, which were really exalted at that time, we can find a comment on this picture: “The child lies desperately ill while the parents huddle in the background, fearful, helpless and grief-stricken. There is nothing more the physician can do […]
… Dino D’Agata discusses Joan Didion’s Year of Magical Thinking and Rieff’s Swimming in a Sea of Death in his “Hope as Forbidden Metaphor“. “Yet Didion also, to my chagrin, succumbs to post-modernity’s coercion when she, like Rieff, begins recriminating herself for wanting to believe her husband still lives. You want to shake her and
grief and eternity … Read More »
… makes possible what would appear to be impossible. CL Canada discusses euthanasia and physician assisted suicide. An Event, Now, Allows Us to Embrace Life The current debate on euthanasia and assisted suicide has seen many terms bandied about, at times intelligently, at other times deceptively. From one side or the other we hear about
only a relationship … Read More »
Millet’s ‘The Sick Child’ “The simple and daily gesture of a mother, when looked at deeply, reflects the love and patience of those who elect to entirely devote themselves to keep the ill person company. But it may be that only she who takes part in giving birth can most serenely accept the tribulations and
accompanying the sick … Read More »
… and are willing to be accompanied by others … Zucchi discusses the real choices to be engaged at life’s end. “Our choice is between hopelessness and hope, between despair and another way of looking at life, where we are not masters of our own destinies but rather human beings who uphold our fellow human
human beings who uphold our fellow human beings … Read More »
… “In [Mozart’s] last letter written to his dying father, dated April 4, 1787, he wrote, speaking precisely of the final stage of life on earth: “For about a year I have become so familiar with this sincere and greatly loved friend of man, [death], that its image no longer holds anything that is terrifying,
great, dramatic and serene meditation on death … Read More »
Discussing the many psychological and spiritual maladies of our times, John Waters suggests the root problem may lie in our failure to recognize our utter dependence … “The desire to impose order on the universe and to become unsettled at our inevitable failure to do so may be ultimately a symptom of the expression in
autonomy … control … unhinged? Read More »
… Nuala O’Faolain’s interview with Marian Finucane – on her experience after being diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer … a transcript. Her friend Nell McCafferty describes the interview as “listening to the cry of an animal in the forest.” “It amazed me, Marian, how quickly life turned black, immediately almost. For example, I lived somewhere
the essence of this experience is alone-ness … Read More »
“Convalescence” by Luigi Nono … “The formal structure of this painting closely recalls Munch’s “The sick child” (So close and yet so far. JMP 2003;1 (2):39), although the sickness of the child is perceived in a deeply different way. While Munch’s painting is dominated by an anguished desperation, here we find the image of a
… an article in the most recent Journal of Medicine and the Person discusses the importance of attending to and recognizing the basic needs of our patients and families. A transcript of the original talk and related talks from the 2009 Med Conference. “The key lies in recognizing these basic needs. Not what we have
recognizing our patient’s needs … Read More »
