{"title":"Embodied, Transpersonal Agency: Singing at the Bedside.","authors":"Kim Hensley Owens","doi":"10.1007/s10912-025-09947-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-025-09947-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article relies upon a multi-year, IRB-approved ethnographic study of a chapter of Threshold Choir, a group that sings for patients on hospice, to forward an analysis of embodied, transpersonal agency. Combining tools of rhetorical analysis, autoethnography, and ethnography, including data from interviews, surveys, and field notes, I demonstrate that when singers offer palliative care by singing to/for hospice patients, the practice seems to affect both patients and singers emotionally as well as physically. The work of Threshold Choir offers a unique opportunity for an empathetic exchange that can decrease discomfort and allow an embodied, transpersonal agency to emerge for Threshold singers and those they sing for at bedside.</p>","PeriodicalId":45518,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143988913","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Vaida Kazlauskaite, Brandon Eddy, Tai Mendenhall, Jacqueline LaPlant-Braughton
{"title":"\"How Do I Tell My Children I Have Cancer?\" Disclosing a Cancer Diagnosis to School-Aged Children: A Qualitative Study.","authors":"Vaida Kazlauskaite, Brandon Eddy, Tai Mendenhall, Jacqueline LaPlant-Braughton","doi":"10.1007/s10912-025-09949-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-025-09949-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Parents who are diagnosed with cancer are faced with difficult decisions related to how, when, and how much to tell their children. Most literature supporting such parents focuses on communication processes after the cancer is disclosed. Knowledge about processes that parents go through to prepare for disclosure conversations with their children is scarce. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten participants who were diagnosed with breast cancer. Mothers described how they prepared for the disclosure conversation, ways that cancer was discussed with their children, and what factors would help them in this process. Implications for clinical and medical providers are presented and discussed.</p>","PeriodicalId":45518,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144003948","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Impact of Public Health and Medical Theory on the Societal Response to the 1889 Russian Flu.","authors":"Chris Zajner","doi":"10.1007/s10912-025-09952-7","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10912-025-09952-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The 1889 Russian (also called 'Asiatic') Flu epidemic can be described as one of the first modern pandemics. The development of extensive railroad and shipping networks during and prior to this period facilitated the previously unprecedented movement of goods and people around the world. It additionally propagated the process of shrinking the barriers between the countryside and major metropolises. While the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in lockdown measures nearly worldwide and prompted widespread social, economic, and cultural disruptions, the Russian Flu was not accompanied by such drastic changes. In this article, it is argued that the blunted historical consciousness of this epidemic were a result of a combination of factors, including the nascent state of scientific research and understanding of infectious diseases, the circumscribed reach of media, implicit comparisons to other contemporary epidemics, temporal closeness to the Spanish Flu and suppression of memory, and most substantially the lack of an organized public health apparatus to act upon the epidemic. As a result, the 1889 Russian pandemic, though significant in terms of its mortality and economic impact, was quickly forgotten from the collective consciousness and has long been a hidden lesson from history.</p>","PeriodicalId":45518,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144045370","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Suitable Sweden: Co-producing Sweden Through Reproduction, Technological Development and International Aid in the Mid-twentieth Century.","authors":"Morag Ramsey","doi":"10.1007/s10912-025-09945-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-025-09945-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In the mid-twentieth century, there were worries about overpopulation globally. Birth control - an often-sensitive topic - was made to be an issue of urgency through an overpopulation discourse. It stopped being associated mainly with sex and started to be associated with ending world starvation. Some nations were seen as requiring help; some nations were seen as politically sensitive to birth control; some nations were seen as financially capable; and other nations, such as Sweden, were seen as well suited for developing birth control technologies. This paper traces how Sweden became a main global protagonist in international aid that focused on reproduction through local birth control development. By using perspectives from science and technology studies, I examine the specific networks and actors that made birth control development and testing possible in Sweden in the mid-twentieth century. Centering around the testing of intrauterine devices and abortion pills in the 1960s, this paper shows how technological development in Sweden co-produced understandings of reproduction and the conditions for reproductive research infrastructure. It argues that the technological development of birth control is an important and yet understudied aspect of how Sweden situated itself internationally when it came to the overpopulation scare.</p>","PeriodicalId":45518,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144064749","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Narrative Brain: The Stories Our Neurons Tell, by Fritz Breithaupt. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2025.","authors":"Carolyn Roy-Bornstein","doi":"10.1007/s10912-025-09950-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-025-09950-9","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45518,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144032269","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Nebula.","authors":"Natalie Mera Ford","doi":"10.1007/s10912-025-09946-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-025-09946-5","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45518,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144032266","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Making of a Good Carer: Dementia and Family Caregiving in an Era of Refamilization and Responsibilization in the Nordic Context.","authors":"Åsa Alftberg","doi":"10.1007/s10912-025-09944-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-025-09944-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A growing number of older people with dementia are continuing to live in their own homes for prolonged periods, leading to a growing number of family carers. An aging population and neoliberal austerity politics are contributing to increased family-provided care instead of formal care services. This is particularly noticeable in the Nordic context, where the welfare state has traditionally been based on universalizing policies designed to mitigate inequalities. The aim of this article is to explore societal expectations of family caregivers and the rhetoric surrounding family caregiving through analyzing a Swedish handbook entitled Dementia for Family Carers: A Handbook from the Swedish Dementia Centre. The textual analysis identifies the various responsibilities expected of family caregivers and illustrates how this responsibility can best be designed. The responsibility of family carers is perceived as natural and self-evident, especially in the context of spouses or partners. In such relationships, when caring for someone with dementia, the expectation is that the carer will transition into a caregiving role rather than continuing to be a life partner. Family caregivers are also expected to be central coordinators of formal and informal care. Furthermore, the responsibility includes the carers' own self-care and ensuring they have the necessary knowledge and support. In tandem with the refamilization process, in which more family carers are providing care for relatives, idealizing and norm-making processes of family caregiving are emerging. This responsibilization process is crafting conceptions of the good carer, one who is responsible for relatives and formal care, while also prioritizing their own well-being.</p>","PeriodicalId":45518,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143774560","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Mirage of Medical Miracles.","authors":"Yamac Akgun","doi":"10.1007/s10912-025-09942-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-025-09942-9","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45518,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143732202","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Products of Conception: Imaging and Imagining Maternal-Fetal Relationships.","authors":"Sabina Dosani","doi":"10.1007/s10912-025-09940-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-025-09940-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>When my pregnancies ended in silence in an ultrasound suite, I was left with many questions that my medical training did not help me to answer. To investigate what an ultrasonically imaged embryo might represent in obstetric and maternal contexts, I turned to novels and memoirs, where I discovered that new traditions of writing about miscarriage and ultrasound are being crafted. In this paper, I consider the ghostly motifs in depictions of obstetric ultrasound in three contemporary works: Queenie (2019) by Candice Carty-Williams; Hilary Mantel's memoir, Giving up the Ghost (2013); and Maggie O'Farrell's personal essay \"Baby and Bloodstream,\" from I am, I am, I am: Seventeen Brushes with Death (2017). In each text, the ultrasound is a contested site where obstetric and maternal miscarriage narratives collide.</p>","PeriodicalId":45518,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143732198","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sex in Limbo: Noninvasive Prenatal Testing and the (Un)Making of Sex Chromosome Variations.","authors":"Shana Riethof","doi":"10.1007/s10912-025-09939-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-025-09939-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In 2017, Belgium became the first European country to offer full access to noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) for all pregnant individuals. NIPT is commonly used to screen for aneuploidies like Down syndrome and assess fetal sex. One consequence of genome-wide NIPT is the potential to detect sex chromosome variations (SCVs), whose inclusion in the NIPT panel remains debated. This paper examines the moral ambivalence surrounding the prenatal detection of SCVs in light of the ongoing medicalization of intersex bodies. Combining humanities and ethnography, I explore how two techniques have made SCVs visible to the scientific community. I contrast NIPT with the Barr body, a sex testing method developed in the 1950s. I ask, what are the social and material consequences of each mode of making sex visible? In turn, how does it inform the debate on including SCVs in prenatal screening? First, I show how SCVs have been historically framed as medical conditions, disconnected from intersex concerns. Drawing on fieldwork on NIPT in Belgium, I highlight how the framing of SCVs as pathological categories is underpinned by epistemic uncertainties related to the role of vision in scientific practice. I argue that contemporary genetics' approach to SCVs reflects a continuation of the gender binary framework, wherein SCVs are treated as medical conditions rather than as evidence that sex, like gender, is socially mediated. Ultimately, I suggest that integrating an intersex perspective into the conversation about SCVs could offer an alternative to the medicalization of sex differences.</p>","PeriodicalId":45518,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143674734","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}