Medical Humanities最新文献

Reproductive technology's animal unconscious: multispecies motherhood and humanimal horror. 生殖技术的动物无意识：多物种母性和人类的恐惧。

IF 1.2 3区社会学

Medical Humanities Pub Date : 2025-09-10 DOI: 10.1136/medhum-2025-013322

Georgia Walton, Dominic O'Key

{"title":"Reproductive technology's animal unconscious: multispecies motherhood and humanimal horror.","authors":"Georgia Walton, Dominic O'Key","doi":"10.1136/medhum-2025-013322","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2025-013322","url":null,"abstract":"Preclinical animal testing has played a critical role within medical history. Yet it remains an underdiscussed topic within the medical humanities. What might happen, then, if we analyse the animal studies of the lab via the method of cultural critique that is animal studies? This essay responds to this question by exploring the roles that animals play, and are made to play, within the technologies for, debates about and narratives of human reproduction. The essay is comparative. First, it focuses on how the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) represents their experiments with lambs as part of their development of an artificial placenta. Then, it juxtaposes these narratives with two recent horror films that dramatise and hyperbolise the very human-animal relations on which CHOP's research relies. Both Laura Moss's Birth/Rebirth (2023) and Valdimar Jóhannsson's Lamb (2021) can be read, we suggest, as narratives of multispecies family-making that, in their representation of human reproduction as dependent on the exploitation of animal reproduction, signify and subvert the species hierarchies that attend animal testing. Yet we also wish to track how each of these films, just like CHOP, ultimately figures animals as sacrificial objects. We argue that reading these texts together illuminates the politics of species that undergirds CHOP's research, its medical humanities critique and the horror genre. More than simply adding an animal studies perspective to the debate about the future of human reproduction, this essay models forms of reading that, by combining the interpretive practices of animal studies and medical humanities, unsettle the ways that animals are positioned as literal and symbolic surrogates for the human.","PeriodicalId":46435,"journal":{"name":"Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145034444","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Full circle: a patient, a baby and the making of a doctor. 一个完整的循环：一个病人，一个婴儿和一个医生的形成。

IF 1.2 3区社会学

Medical Humanities Pub Date : 2025-09-04 DOI: 10.1136/medhum-2025-013441

Roshni Jagaram

引用次数: 0

Rethinking reflexivity, replicability and rigour in qualitative research. 反思定性研究中的反身性、可复制性和严谨性。

IF 1.2 3区社会学

Medical Humanities Pub Date : 2025-08-28 DOI: 10.1136/medhum-2025-013293

Qin Xiang Ng, Kevin Xiang Zhou

引用次数: 0

Memory erasure as transformative experience: reconsidering the moral significance of neurotechnological interventions. 作为变革经验的记忆消除：重新考虑神经技术干预的道德意义。

IF 1.2 3区社会学

Medical Humanities Pub Date : 2025-08-28 DOI: 10.1136/medhum-2025-013373

Junjie Yang

{"title":"Memory erasure as transformative experience: reconsidering the moral significance of neurotechnological interventions.","authors":"Junjie Yang","doi":"10.1136/medhum-2025-013373","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2025-013373","url":null,"abstract":"We now possess various neurotechnologies that precisely modulate the nervous system. Among these, memory erasure technology (MET), aiming to weaken or eliminate traumatic memories via neuropharmacology, neurostimulation and optogenetics, has sparked intense ethical debate. At its core, the ethical complexity of MET stems from foundational questions about its moral significance. A neurophenomenological approach reveals that MET generates experiences that are epistemically and personally transformative, thereby influencing the process of decision-making. At the individual ethical level, the consequences of MET are difficult to assess rationally, as individuals make transformative choices amid profound uncertainty regarding how their experiential and value frameworks may shift in the future. At the social ethical level, MET challenges the legal, historical, distributive and epistemic dimensions of justice related to memory, while its transformative potential simultaneously offers opportunities to transcend existing forms of injustice. Thus, the argument that MET is morally unacceptable because it deviates from natural forgetting fundamentally misunderstands the basis of its ethical implications. The moral significance of MET is neither instrumental nor contextual; rather, it resides in the inherent capacity of neurotechnological interventions to generate transformative experiences that fundamentally reshape human moral decision-making.","PeriodicalId":46435,"journal":{"name":"Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144973944","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Expertise in global health and global health ethics. 全球健康和全球健康伦理方面的专业知识。

IF 1.2 3区社会学

Medical Humanities Pub Date : 2025-08-25 DOI: 10.1136/medhum-2025-013482

Sridhar Venkatapuram

引用次数: 0

Social suffering and caregiver burden in The Brothers Karamazov: the story of Captain Snegiryov. 《卡拉马佐夫兄弟》中的社会苦难和照顾者的负担：斯涅吉廖夫上尉的故事。

IF 1.2 3区社会学

Medical Humanities Pub Date : 2025-08-24 DOI: 10.1136/medhum-2025-013334

Ana Cláudia Mesquita Garcia

{"title":"Social suffering and caregiver burden in The Brothers Karamazov: the story of Captain Snegiryov.","authors":"Ana Cláudia Mesquita Garcia","doi":"10.1136/medhum-2025-013334","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2025-013334","url":null,"abstract":"This article offers a critical literary analysis of The Brothers Karamazov through the lens of literary humanism, focusing on dimensions of social suffering and caregiver burden in end-of-life contexts. These themes are examined through the story of Captain Snegiryov and his family, key figures in Dostoevsky's narrative. By analysing the captain's experience as a caregiver for his gravely ill son in the context of extreme poverty, this study highlights four central aspects: (1) social suffering within the framework of total pain, (2) the caregiver burden, (3) neglect by healthcare systems and institutions and (4) the role of compassionate communities in alleviating suffering. The portrayal of the captain's struggles resonates with contemporary issues in palliative care and social justice, illustrating how economic and structural vulnerabilities exacerbate caregiver burden and reinforce systemic inequalities. This article argues that literature provides valuable insights into the caregiving experience, revealing ethical dilemmas, emotional challenges and the urgent need for expanded support systems. By bridging literary analysis and palliative care discourse, this study underscores the critical need for interdisciplinary approaches to address caregiver distress and emphasises the role of community engagement in alleviating social suffering.","PeriodicalId":46435,"journal":{"name":"Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144973855","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Diagnosis: undervalued. A psychoanalytic exploration of doctor strikes in the British National Health Service, 2023-2024. 诊断:低估。2023-2024年英国国家卫生服务部门医生罢工的精神分析探索。

IF 1.2 3区社会学

Medical Humanities Pub Date : 2025-08-21 DOI: 10.1136/medhum-2024-013208

Sarah M Ramsey

{"title":"Diagnosis: undervalued. A psychoanalytic exploration of doctor strikes in the British National Health Service, 2023-2024.","authors":"Sarah M Ramsey","doi":"10.1136/medhum-2024-013208","DOIUrl":"10.1136/medhum-2024-013208","url":null,"abstract":"This work explores recent industrial action by doctors in the British National Health Service (NHS) through a psychoanalytic lens, exploring psychosocial context and the role of unconscious phantasy. Doctor strikes are conceptualised as a protest against devaluation. Expressed motivation for strike action, a real-term pay reduction, is symbolic of deeper societal devaluation of healthcare and those who provide it; pay restoration serves as a phantastic object through which amends can be made. Layers of holding and containment are identified, from the function of the health, or rather anti-death, service in containing deep-rooted anxiety around illness and death, to the holding, typically in limited supply, experienced by staff members working in health services, to the containing function individual staff provide for their patients.Strike action shatters the NHS as a container, primitive anxieties emerge and primitive defences are activated. Anger expressed through protest causes an impact, expressing a demand to be recognised and valued. The time and space of the strike has generative potential; implications of breaking the 'broken' NHS give impetus to finding a way forward. Exploration of unconscious phantasy underpinning industrial action and public response may bring insight to negotiations, enabling grounded and coherent solutions to be derived.","PeriodicalId":46435,"journal":{"name":"Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":"397-407"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143573770","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Parental perspectives of trisomy 18: common threads of a life-limiting diagnosis. 父母对18三体的看法：限制生命的诊断的共同线索。

IF 1.2 3区社会学

Medical Humanities Pub Date : 2025-08-21 DOI: 10.1136/medhum-2024-013188

Evelyn Armour, Melissa J MacPherson, Cheryl Mack, Michael van Manen

{"title":"Parental perspectives of trisomy 18: common threads of a life-limiting diagnosis.","authors":"Evelyn Armour, Melissa J MacPherson, Cheryl Mack, Michael van Manen","doi":"10.1136/medhum-2024-013188","DOIUrl":"10.1136/medhum-2024-013188","url":null,"abstract":"There is a narrative told among healthcare providers that the public stories of trisomy 18 do not reflect the experiences of the many families navigating this diagnosis. This is in the context of a recognised paradigm shift occurring in the treatment of children born with trisomy 18 from one focused solely on comfort to one that considers the potential of medical-surgical interventions to afford survival. This study aims to elicit and explore phenomenologically parents' narratives of trisomy 18. The focus is on the full spectrum of trisomy 18: whether it was diagnosed before or after birth, whether the child's life was of short or long duration and whether invasive or palliative care was sought. While trisomy 18 was not univocal of the children's stories, as a focus of this qualitative inquiry unified them. Healthcare providers may benefit from understanding how trisomy 18 may affect a particular diagnosis experience, whether made during pregnancy or the days after birth when parents are still getting to know their child. As parents live with this diagnosis, pregnancy and the life of their child may be shaped by an uncertainty of a life-limiting condition, whereby care is bounded by what is and is not possible. And, we may appreciate how trisomy 18 imparts meanings on ordinary and extraordinary moments for children and their families in a recognisable form. The understandings gained from this research may support healthcare professionals' reflective clinical practices as they care for children and their families affected by this diagnosis.","PeriodicalId":46435,"journal":{"name":"Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":"352-359"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143442422","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Women's health: who cares? Reproduction, resistance and reckoning. 女性健康：谁在乎？繁殖，抵抗和清算。

IF 1.2 3区社会学

Medical Humanities Pub Date : 2025-08-21 DOI: 10.1136/medhum-2025-013535

Sabina Dosani

引用次数: 0

Architecture for mental health. 心理健康建筑。

IF 1.2 3区社会学

Medical Humanities Pub Date : 2025-08-21 DOI: 10.1136/medhum-2024-013155

Roberto Rusca

{"title":"Architecture for mental health.","authors":"Roberto Rusca","doi":"10.1136/medhum-2024-013155","DOIUrl":"10.1136/medhum-2024-013155","url":null,"abstract":"The present study aims at establishing if anything has been learnt from 140 years of modern architecture when it comes to designing for inpatient mental health and to identifying how architecture can contribute to the development of low stress psychiatric units. Creative architects have generally rejected the 'classical language' of architecture. The principles of modern architecture can be applied to the design of psychiatric units. The effects of living conditions on the human mind had already been addressed in the 1920s. More recent studies have looked at links between ward design and aggression, aimed at identifying environmental stress-reducing factors. Environmental psychology studies, along with the work of 261 architects over a span of 140 years and of 32 major architectural firms, were reviewed. Aggression seems to be linked to factors such as crowding, noise, lack of privacy and the lack of stress-reducing positive distractions. Out of 261 architects, 22 (8.42%) designed hospital buildings and only five (1.91%) were involved in designing psychiatric hospitals. Out of 69 recently built modern hospitals, 18 were psychiatric hospitals (26.08%). Principles of modern architecture have been sporadically implemented in older hospital buildings, rarely in psychiatric units, more frequently in some recently built psychiatric hospitals, hopefully to create low stress environments that could speed up recovery, reduce costs, enhance staff satisfaction and recruiting.","PeriodicalId":46435,"journal":{"name":"Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":"339-351"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143524565","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0