The Healing Arts: An Oxford Illustrated Anthology - Hardcover

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9780192623195: The Healing Arts: An Oxford Illustrated Anthology

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0192623192 ISBN 13: 9780192623195

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1995

From birth and adolescence through maturity and old age, our lives are punctuated by sudden medical emergencies and by chronic illnesses, and by encounters with doctors, nurses, and other care-givers. Physicians and patients, operations and cures, suffering and compassion--all are part of the reality of human existence. Now, in a beautifully illustrated volume, R.S. Downie offers a vibrant, kaleidoscopic look at the healing arts, bringing together eclectic and engaging excerpts from fiction, poetry, drama, and letters, and by writers as diverse as Paraclesus, Francis Bacon, and Joseph Heller.
Here are celebrations and laments, such as in Sylvia Plath's "Morning Song" ("Love set you going like a fat gold watch, / The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry / Took its place among the elements"); in Hippocrates' From Epidemics; in Franz Schubert's eloquent last letter to Franz von Schober, telling of his illness; in Susan Sontag's Illness as Metaphor discussing TB and cancer as "diseases of passion"; or in Philip Larkin's acerbic verses on birth, aging, and mourning. Caretakers and caregivers share their thoughts, as in Walt Whitman's "From the Wound-Dresser," Florence Nightingale's Notes on Nursing, and William Carlos Williams's "Tract." And of course there is great need for humor and a lighter touch in healing, which Downie reflects in many offbeat and witty entries, ranging from Stephen Sondheim's "Gee, Officer Krupke," to Richard Asher's "Why are Medical Journals so Dull?" ("Many of the titles are unattractive.... Titles such as 'A Trial of 4.4-Diethyl-hydro-balderdashic Acid in Acute Coryzal Infections' are far better changed to 'A New Treatment for Colds'). And the anthology is rounded out by paintings and drawings.
The arts can be entertaining, moving, disturbing, consoling, and rich in insight, comments Downie in his preface. And as he demonstrates in this rich anthology, the arts can be healing as well. Indeed, not only will these selections entertain and enrich the perceptions of doctors and nurses (as well as anyone who enjoys fine writing), but as they give pleasure, they will also stretch the imagination and deepen the sympathies of all those who care for--or who one day will be--patients.

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About the Author:

About the Editor:
R.S. Downie is Professor of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow University, where one of his interests is collaborative writing with doctors and nurses. His leisure time is devoted to the arts.

From Booklist:

This anthology is intended to expose doctors, nurses, and others who care for patients to prose and poetry that will enlarge their awareness and deepen their understanding of the complex healing process. It suits the purpose. Editor Downie's choices range over many centuries and lands, examining, or neatly touching, various stages of individual human life and major life events, various physical and mental illnesses, and various types of doctors. Downie's selections bring, besides the inevitable doctors and patients, nurses, hospitals, chaplains, and visitors into the picture and, in the book's final sections, look at research, ethics, and purposes. They range from the moving poem by John Silkin, "Death of a Son," through a series of letters by musical composers tormented by health problems, to such delightful pieces as Saki's story "The Lumber Room" (an excellent depiction of an intelligent youngster) and Doyle's "The Doctors of Hoyland," a tale of English rural practice. Although aimed primarily at health care givers, the anthology will bring enjoyment to and provoke thought in anyone interested in both medicine and literature. William Beatty

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