Scottish Humanities symposium Wed June 14 2023
Welcome back to in-person meetings! Though the meeting will be hybrid, if you can’t come in person you can still join in. #ScotMedHumanities23 Full details of the symposium here
Re-remembering first times
More notes after the operation on my right eye (26 March 2010), whose cataract was more rigid and opaque. This time the onrush of light is less specific and more generalised. It’s not so much that things appear better lit, but, rather that I’m acutely aware of how everything is surrounded by light. The element Read More …
Heart attack (with birds)
So beautiful … Oh! The lovebirds are eating … But a heart attack is gruesome, bringing intimations of mortality to many, and death itself to others. In our softer age, anatomy as art seems less shocking than Polly Morgan’s taxidermy. Her arresting art has been highly successful though. Perhaps the unexpected has unusual power to Read More …
Medication as a protective shield
I began collecting the used packets on the second anniversary of my transplant, as a reminder of how fragile our grasp on life is. Without my medication I cannot survive, and so it acts as a ‘protective shield’ … Extracts from Brian Keeley’s website (2016). Commentary The Artist Brian Keeley required a heart transplant following Read More …
Words as a surgeon’s tool
When a patient comes in with a fatal head bleed, that first conversation with a neurosurgeon may forever color how the family remembers the death, from a peaceful letting go (“Maybe it was his time”) to an open sore of regret (“Those doctors didn’t listen! They didn’t even try to save him!”) When there’s no place for Read More …
Nise: The Heart of Madness
Nise: The Heart of Madness (Portuguese- Nise: O Coração da Loucura) Commentary Nise da Silveira was born in Brazil in 1905. She was a lot of things – the only female student of her graduating class in medical school, a student of Carl Jung and a pioneer of occupational therapy in Psychiatry. In this film, Nise: Read More …
Cardiomegaly
You have a big heart, said Dr Broadbent, turning a compliment into a fatal condition. Poem by Olive M Ritch, 2018. Commentary An unfortunate pun. A nice example of the confusions inherent in communicating with patients. Orcadian poet, Olive M. Ritch has written a number of poems on medical themes, and is a course tutor Read More …
Wit
Wit (2001) – “And death shall be no more, death, thou shalt die” Commentary Where do literature and medicine intersect? Mike Nichols 2001 movie Wit, based on the prizewinning play by Margaret Edson, tests that, as a literature scholar tries to make sense of her impending death. Several writers speak of finding meaning in the Read More …
The eye chart
I scowl towards his voice. He says the map marks how far vision goes. If I could creep up close I’d learn the journey. His technique restricts me to a chair so he can track how far I travel down the chart alone before I pause. I grope in the third line – my limit Read More …
On (partial) blindness
When I consider how to represent my sixth of working light, my words collide with your fear of dark. Your visions hide the blindness born with me. You mourned sight sent before you into death. Let me invent a new account–half- light to place beside your grief, the beauty of blind life denied. I’d rather Read More …