The Hippocratic Myth

The Hippocratic Myth PDF

Author: M. Gregg Bloche, M.D.

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Published: 2011-03-15

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 0230117945

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When we're ill, we trust in doctors to put our well-being first. But medicine's expanding capability and soaring costs are putting this promise at risk. Increasingly, society is calling upon physicians to limit care and to use their skills on behalf of health plan bureaucrats, public officials, national security, and courts of law. And doctors are answering this call. They're endangering patients, veiling moral choices behind the language of science and, at times, compromising our liberties. In The Hippocratic Myth, Dr. M. Gregg Bloche marshals his expertise in medicine and the law to expose how: *Doctors are pushed into acting both as caregivers and cost-cutters, compromising their fidelity to patients *Politics keeps doctors from giving war veterans the help they need *Insurers and hospital administrators pressure doctors to discontinue life-saving treatment, even when patients and family members object *Medicine has become a weapon in America's battles over abortion, child custody, criminal responsibility, and the rights of gays and lesbians *The war on terror has exploited clinical psychology to inflict harm Challenging, provocative, and insightful, The Hippocratic Myth breaks the code of silence and issues a powerful warning about the need for doctors to forge a new compact with patients and society.

The Hippocratic Myth

The Hippocratic Myth PDF

Author: M. Gregg Bloche, M.D.

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Published: 2011-03-15

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 9780230603738

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

When we're ill, we trust in doctors to put our well-being first. But medicine's expanding capability and soaring costs are putting this promise at risk. Increasingly, society is calling upon physicians to limit care and to use their skills on behalf of health plan bureaucrats, public officials, national security, and courts of law. And doctors are answering this call. They're endangering patients, veiling moral choices behind the language of science and, at times, compromising our liberties. In The Hippocratic Myth, Dr. M. Gregg Bloche marshals his expertise in medicine and the law to expose how: *Doctors are pushed into acting both as caregivers and cost-cutters, compromising their fidelity to patients *Politics keeps doctors from giving war veterans the help they need *Insurers and hospital administrators pressure doctors to discontinue life-saving treatment, even when patients and family members object *Medicine has become a weapon in America's battles over abortion, child custody, criminal responsibility, and the rights of gays and lesbians *The war on terror has exploited clinical psychology to inflict harm Challenging, provocative, and insightful, The Hippocratic Myth breaks the code of silence and issues a powerful warning about the need for doctors to forge a new compact with patients and society.

Hippocrates' Oath and Asclepius' Snake

Hippocrates' Oath and Asclepius' Snake PDF

Author: T. A. Cavanaugh

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 0190673672

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T. A. Cavanaugh's Hippocrates' Oath and Asclepius' Snake: The Birth of the Medical Profession articulates the Oath as establishing the medical profession's unique internal medical ethic - in its most basic and least controvertible form, this ethic mandates that physicians help and not harm the sick. Relying on Greek myth, drama, and medical experience (e.g., homeopathy), the book shows how this medical ethic arose from reflection on the most vexing medical-ethical problem -- injury caused by a physician -- and argues that deliberate iatrogenic harm, especially the harm of a doctor choosing to kill (physician assisted suicide, euthanasia, abortion, and involvement in capital punishment), amounts to an abandonment of medicine as an exclusively therapeutic profession. The book argues that medicine as a profession necessarily involves stating before others what one stands for: the good one seeks and the bad one seeks to avoid on behalf of the sick, and rejects the view that medicine is purely a technique lacking its own unique internal ethic. It concludes noting that medical promising (as found in the White Coat Ceremony through which U. S. medical students matriculate) implicates medical autonomy which in turn merits respect, including honoring professional conscientious objections.

Hippocrates' Woman

Hippocrates' Woman PDF

Author: Helen King

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2002-01-04

Total Pages: 341

ISBN-13: 1134772211

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Hippocrates' Woman demonstrates the role of Hippocratic ideas about the female body in the subsequent history of western gynaecology. It examines these ideas not only in the social and cultural context in which they were first produced, but also the ways in which writers up to the Victorian period have appealed to the material in support of their own theories. Among the conflicting tange of images of women given in the Hippocratic corpus existed one tradition of the female body which says it is radically unlike the male body, behaving in different ways and requiring a different set of therapies. This book sets this model within the context of Greek mythology, especially the myth of Pandora and her difference from men, to explore the image of the body as something to be read. Hippocrates' Woman presents an arresting study of the origins of gynaecology, an exploration of how the interior workings of the female body were understood and the influence of Hippocrates' theories on the gynaecology of subsequent ages.

Hippocrates Now

Hippocrates Now PDF

Author: Helen King

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2019-11-14

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 1350005908

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This book is available as open access through the Knowledge Unlatched programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. We need to talk about Hippocrates. Current scholarship attributes none of the works of the 'Hippocratic corpus' to him, and the ancient biographical traditions of his life are not only late, but also written for their own promotional purposes. Yet Hippocrates features powerfully in our assumptions about ancient medicine, and our beliefs about what medicine – and the physician himself – should be. In both orthodox and alternative medicine, he continues to be a model to be emulated. This book will challenge widespread assumptions about Hippocrates (and, in the process, about the history of medicine in ancient Greece and beyond) and will also explore the creation of modern myths about the ancient world. Why do we continue to use Hippocrates, and how are new myths constructed around his name? How do news stories and the internet contribute to our picture of him? And what can this tell us about wider popular engagements with the classical world today, in memes, 'quotes' and online?

Unwell Women

Unwell Women PDF

Author: Elinor Cleghorn

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2022-06-07

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 0593182979

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A trailblazing, conversation-starting history of women’s health—from the earliest medical ideas about women’s illnesses to hormones and autoimmune diseases—brought together in a fascinating sweeping narrative. Elinor Cleghorn became an unwell woman ten years ago. She was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease after a long period of being told her symptoms were anything from psychosomatic to a possible pregnancy. As Elinor learned to live with her unpredictable disease she turned to history for answers, and found an enraging legacy of suffering, mystification, and misdiagnosis. In Unwell Women, Elinor Cleghorn traces the almost unbelievable history of how medicine has failed women by treating their bodies as alien and other, often to perilous effect. The result is an authoritative and groundbreaking exploration of the relationship between women and medical practice, from the "wandering womb" of Ancient Greece to the rise of witch trials across Europe, and from the dawn of hysteria as a catchall for difficult-to-diagnose disorders to the first forays into autoimmunity and the shifting understanding of hormones, menstruation, menopause, and conditions like endometriosis. Packed with character studies and case histories of women who have suffered, challenged, and rewritten medical orthodoxy—and the men who controlled their fate—this is a revolutionary examination of the relationship between women, illness, and medicine. With these case histories, Elinor pays homage to the women who suffered so strides could be made, and shows how being unwell has become normalized in society and culture, where women have long been distrusted as reliable narrators of their own bodies and pain. But the time for real change is long overdue: answers reside in the body, in the testimonies of unwell women—and their lives depend on medicine learning to listen.

Medical Firsts

Medical Firsts PDF

Author: Robert E. Adler

Publisher: Turner Publishing Company

Published: 2008-04-21

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 0470313897

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An exploration of medical discoveries-from the ancient Greeks to the present "Always help, or at least do no harm." Following this simple yet revolutionary idea, Hippocrates laid the foundation for modern medicine over two millennia ago. From the Hippocratic Oath to the human genome, from Pasteur's germ theory to the worldwide eradication of smallpox, Medical Firsts brings to life 2,500 years of medical advances and discoveries. Organized chronologically, the book describes each milestone in a vivid capsule history, making it a fascinating and wonderfully readable resource for anyone interested in medicine's past progress and future promise. Robert E. Adler, PhD (Santa Rosa, CA) has worked as a psychologist and science journalist. He writes about a wide variety of scientific and medical topics for New Scientist, Nature, and other publications and is the author of Science Firsts (0-471-40174-9).

Uncaring

Uncaring PDF

Author: Robert Pearl

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Published: 2021-05-18

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 1541758250

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Doctors are taught how to cure people. But they don’t always know how to care for them. Hardly anyone is happy with American healthcare these days. Patients are getting sicker and going bankrupt from medical bills. Doctors are burning out and making dangerous mistakes. Both parties blame our nation’s outdated and dysfunctional healthcare system. But that’s only part of the problem. In this important and timely book, Dr. Robert Pearl shines a light on the unseen and often toxic culture of medicine. Today’s physicians have a surprising disdain for technology, an unhealthy obsession with status, and an increasingly complicated relationship with their patients. All of this can be traced back to their earliest experiences in medical school, where doctors inherit a set of norms, beliefs, and expectations that shape almost every decision they make, with profound consequences for the rest of us. Uncaring draws an original and revealing portrait of what it’s actually like to be a doctor. It illuminates the complex and intimidating world of medicine for readers, and in the end offers a clear plan to save American healthcare.

The Myth of William Osler

The Myth of William Osler PDF

Author: Patrick Fiddes

Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers

Published: 2021-07-30

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 1398456160

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The Myth of William Osler presents a radical re-examination of the philosophies and practices of a renowned American medical hero. It challenges widely-accepted beliefs about Osler which, while unsettling to many readers, brings to light interpretations and approaches which have disrespected Osler’s expressed wishes, exaggerated his achievements and dishonoured his memory. The Myth questions the originality of both Osler’s teaching philosophies and his educational legacies, and the credit he received for educational innovations that were not his. It examines Osler’s disregard of contemporary advances occurring in moral philosophy and medical ethics, his uncertain values and his documented unethical practices. The Myth argues that Osler’s immutable habit, his proclaimed Way, reflected a lifelong application to each task that, in the end, became his defining flaw. While William Osler’s reputation as a learned medical historian is not contested, The Myth attests that even here, his interpretations of medicine’s history were highly selective, often constructed to support a view predicated on Ancient Greek, Renaissance European and English medical philosophies and practices. Osler’s teaching—as revered as it was—centred on the ancient tradition of the Hippocratic art of observation while remaining largely untouched by the emerging importance of the patient’s history that was being pursued by more unbiased and innovative others. William Osler’s legacy will stand but with a greater complexity than has been previously appreciated.