Medical Masculinity and the Sensation of Suffering in Leonard Portal Mark’s Acromegaly (1912)

Abstract

In 1912 physician Leonard Mark published a book titled Acromegaly: A Personal Experience. Within, he documented his life suffering from the titular condition which manifested in symptoms ranging from headaches to the hypertrophic enlargement of the head, hands and feet. As the condition began to affect Mark’s ability to perform his medical and artistic work his writing had to contend with his changing identity, body, and the problem of how to effectively explain the experience of his suffering. At the same time as the wider medical profession was becoming fixated on acromegaly as a disease defined almost wholly by its spectacular visible symptoms, Mark’s writing invited his reader to go beyond the merely visible and engage with his narrative on a multisensory level. What emerges in Acromegaly, and what this paper explores, is how Mark used contemporary ideas of medical masculinity, particularly in deconstructing them, to invite this sensorial engagement.