Medical Humanities最新文献

Art can have a positive impact on health and well-being and be efficacious in health research and dissemination processes. However, creative, arts-based approaches to research and knowledge translation sometimes have a precarious toehold in the spheres of both health and art. In this paper, we report on failures, misunderstandings, difficulties and ethical tensions associated with work undertaken in, and between, art and health. Using collaborative autoethnography, we draw on professional experiences and relevant literature to present four core challenges that can be encountered, and should be considered, when working in the art and health space: (1) who is art for? (2) gatekeeping, (3) ethical tensions and (4) taste and quality. We share these challenges to make visible the often-tacit expectations, ways of working and hierarchies of knowledge that underpin arts and health work. In our discussion, we offer suggestions for overcoming these challenges, in the hope they will be useful to others working in arts and health. We raise and explore questions-about knowledge, value, art and ethics-that might not have definitive answers, but that are productive to interrogate before undertaking an arts and health endeavour.

Palliative care communication often balances clarity with compassion, yet its professional and goal-oriented language can inadvertently mute the emotional and existential realities of dying. Illness memoirs, by contrast, linger in the texture of lived experience, offering narrative forms that resist closure and invite deeper engagement with mortality. This study conducts a comparative analysis of professional palliative care discourse and two contemporary illness memoirs, Paul Kalanithi's When Breath Becomes Air and Jenny Diski's In Gratitude, applying Rita Charon's concept of narrative competence and Arthur Frank's illness narrative typology to examine how each portrays and narrates the experience of dying. Kalanithi's quest narrative integrates clinical insight with existential reflection, while Diski's ironic, chaos-inflected style resists conventional narrative resolutions. Juxtaposing these with professional palliative care discourse reveals a narrative gap between institutional goals and the complex interior landscapes of dying patients. We argue that incorporating illness memoirs into palliative care education can cultivate narrative humility, enhance clinicians' sensitivity to diverse narrative forms and improve the emotional and ethical quality of end-of-life care.

Objective: This study aims to examine cases of fi'l-i şenî' (sexual abuse) against children during the Tanzimat period using archival documents and scholarly literature, with the goal of revealing the punitive measures imposed on perpetrators.

Methods: The research employs qualitative methods, specifically document analysis. A keyword search using 'fiil-i şeni' in the database of the Ottoman Archives under the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey yielded 29 relevant cases. The documents were examined with particular attention to maintaining semantic integrity on completion of the translation process. These cases were systematically tabulated in the findings section and analysed in the discussion section.

Results: The study identified 29 cases of fi'l-i şenî' between 1839 and 1876. Four of these cases occurred before the implementation of the 1858 Penal Code, while 25 were adjudicated based on the 1858 Ottoman Penal Code. In the majority of cases, punishment was imposed in accordance with Articles 197, 198, 199 and 200 of the code.

Conclusion: In the period preceding the 1858 Penal Code, pranga punishment-entailing the chaining of offenders' feet and forcing them to perform hard labour-was prominent. This served both punitive and deterrent functions. With the enforcement of the 1858 Penal Code, the legal framework became more systematic and sexual crimes were more explicitly defined and categorised. In particular, Articles 197, 198, 199 and 200 determined the type and severity of punishment based on the nature of the crime, the victim's age and the perpetrator's relationship to the victim.

This paper explores how dogs in Victorian experimental physiology sparked a fundamental ethical and epistemological crisis through their embodied resistance to mechanistic reduction. Using archival evidence from Claude Bernard's laboratory notebooks, feminist antivivisection literature and the public controversy surrounding the Brown Dog memorial, it argues that canine subjects challenged the conceptual foundations of experimental science through persistent agency and interspecies recognition. The analysis highlights three interconnected acts of resistance: Bernard's private struggles with 'uncooperative' experimental subjects that undermined his mechanistic doctrine; the feminist witnessing practices of Lizzy Lind-af-Hageby and Leisa Katherina Schartau, whose documentation of prolonged experiments exposed the systemic violence masked by claims to scientific objectivity; and the Brown Dog Affair, where a terrier's transformation from laboratory subject to contested political symbol crystallised intersecting politics of species, gender and class in Edwardian London. Theoretically, the paper develops the concept of felt reality-the embodied, affective dimension of experimental practice that persistently challenged positivist frameworks. Through feminist animal studies, it examines how dogs' 'absent referent' status required elaborate discursive and psychological mechanisms to suppress evidence of their consciousness and agency. This interdisciplinary inquiry contributes to medical humanities by foregrounding animal agency, ethical witnessing and the limitations of biomedical rationality. Ultimately, it argues that Victorian experimental dogs participated as active agents in historical debates over knowledge, ethics and human dominion. Their resistance shaped a counter-history of science-one that evaluates progress not by dominating life, but by the bravery to confront the irreducible otherness of conscious beings and acknowledge, in that vulnerable exchange, the basis for more compassionate scientific practice.

Medical television lies at the intersection between 'media ethics' and 'clinical representation', shaping the public perception of medical practice. Its epistemic authority is shaped by two main factors: realism (the accuracy of representations compared with real clinical practice) and affective engagement (the emotional impact of dramatised narratives). The research endeavours to unravel the ethical dimensions of Chinese medical television by examining its normative aspects and assessing the balance between pedagogical intentions and commercial imperatives. Using a qualitative-interpretative paradigm that integrates discourse analysis with perceptual evaluation, the researchers conducted an in-depth examination of 280 hours of programming across four television genres (2020-2024). Findings revealed that 32% of respondents expressed full trust in televised medical representations, while 41% indicated moderate trust. Notably, 62% reported encountering factual inaccuracies. Documentary formats received 79% trust ratings, compared with 41% for reality-based programming. Content analysis facilitated the quantification of representational distortions: 52% of programmes employed pathophysiological exaggeration, 74% compressed therapeutic timelines and 59% portrayed unrealistically high success rates (90% effectiveness). This study underscores the significant divergence between medically grounded narratives and dramatised portrayals in popular media, with implications for public health literacy and patient expectations. Future research should delve deeper into comparative regulatory paradigms, exploring how government oversight effectively mitigates misinformation compared with market self-regulation. It is necessary to determine whether epistemic stability is achieved through ethical standardisation or through the pluralistic moderation of the discourse.

This article begins as a review of the French-Moroccan film, Carved by the Wind (2024), directed by Layla Triqui. The film offers an opportunity to use a 'case history' approach in considering classical and recent psychoanalytic theories of forgiveness, a theme embedded in the storyline. A contemporary model of forgiveness proposed by the Italian psychoanalyst Carla Mucci is applied to the principal character, a woman suffering from the overpowering guilt of infanticide. Here, forgiveness is characterised as a potent exchange between the forgiver and the forgiven, involving truthful witnessing of fact, emotional expression and the emergence of shared empathy. The adaptation of Professor Mucci's psychoanalytic model to the non-clinical setting of the film suggests how forgiveness might foster healing in ordinary life.

The article aims to analyse health-related articles written for Sioux San Sun, an Indian tuberculosis sanatorium paper published between October 1938 and September 1941 in Sioux Sanatorium, Rapid City, South Dakota. To account for the ideological agenda behind the seemingly strictly informative content of the articles devoted to medical education, I apply the concept of biocitizenship. While biocitizenship is usually associated with the era of molecularisation, that is, the 21st century, I argue that it can be traced to the first half of the 20th century, when information campaigns about public health were engaged in the process of shaping medically informed biocitizens. By using particular biomedical language, this process resulted in the reconfiguration of individual personas within diverse spheres of authority, encompassing political, medical, legal and occupational domains. I believe that the main idea behind educational articles in Sioux San Sun is, apart from disseminating medical knowledge, to transform uneducated Indians into biocitizens.

This study explores the integration of home-like design elements in paediatric/adolescent palliative care inpatient units, drawing on perspectives from both medical and architectural professionals. Recognising the unique developmental and psychosocial needs of young patients, this research explores how the spatial and emotional qualities associated with 'home' are interpreted and operationalised in palliative care environments. A multimethod approach was employed, including a targeted literature review, analysis of seven international paediatric hospice design and semistructured interviews with 22 experts from the medical and architectural fields.The findings identify two central themes in the design of supportive palliative care settings: (1) Supporting Moments of Normalcy, which highlights the importance of daily routines, social connections and familiar activities in fostering emotional well-being, and (2) Architectural Features of Home, which addresses spatial layout, materiality and aesthetic elements that evoke comfort and familiarity of home.A key divergence was observed between the disciplines: medical professionals emphasised the emotional and social aspects of care, while architects prioritised spatial configuration and material considerations. Additionally, the study discusses how design approaches may vary between younger children and adolescents in creating home-like environments. The contrast points to the need for more integrated design strategies that balance clinical functionality with emotional and social well-being. Limitations include the lack of direct input from young patients and families, as well as a limited exploration of cultural interpretations of 'home'. Future research should address these gaps to inform more inclusive and holistic design approaches in paediatric palliative care.

This article explores the role of humour and satire in promoting multispecies planetary health, with a focus on the work of Indian cartoonist Rohan Chakravarty. Following a critical examination of anthropocentric perspectives in planetary health, the study examines how multimodal satirical narratives critique anthropocentrism, capitalism and environmental injustice through a qualitative analysis of his Green Humour series, while advocating for a holistic understanding of health that integrates human, non-human and ecological well-being. The analysis highlights the potential of humour and satire to engage diverse audiences, encouraging critical reflection on human-nature relationships, challenging systemic inequities and fostering a biocentric perspective. By addressing intersections of race, coloniality, gender and interspecies relationships, the study demonstrates how satirical communication can subvert traditional paradigms and encourage reflection on deeper environmental issues. The findings suggest that humour and satire offer a promising strategy for advancing planetary health, particularly in the context of climate change and global multispecies health promotion.

Performing Endometriosis is an autopathographic piece, written and performed by VR and directed by MM (coauthors of the present article). Divided into very short scenes (called Glimpses), Performing Endometriosis is a solo work about VR's lived experience of stage 4 endometriosis, where audiences are invited to encounter some key moments in her chronic illness journey. Most often experienced by women, endometriosis occurs when tissue similar to the lining of the uterus appears elsewhere in the body, becoming entrapped and finding no bodily exit. One of the uterus' healthy functions (if pregnancy occurs) is developing placenta, a disc of tissue that, among other things, provides nourishment to new life and is spontaneously delivered once it has performed its function. Departing from the ambivalently proliferative character of uteri and looking at feminist theory, feminist pedagogy in theatre training and the medical and health humanities, this article discusses the methodology used during the creative process of Performing Endometriosis, that is, placental dramaturgy. Originally developed towards performance-making, placental dramaturgy is a creative process characterised by a co-nurturing yet independent sense of collaboration. This article unpacks 'placental dramaturgy' with the aim of its replication in other feminist creative processes towards the making and delivering of performance.