Analysis Of Sir Luke Fildes 'The Doctor'

1. What doctors, in 1800’s were able to perform and achieve in the operating rooms?

“I was the fortunate child of medical and public-health “workers, whose compassion... They brought me to a place of wonders, taught me to pay attention, and set me early on a

Selzer’s The Exact Location of the Soul captures the essence of being a physician by using first person point of view, a series of personal anecdotes, and such striking imagery.

“The Gross Clinic,” a staple of medical history, represents the raw truth of surgery and the shift in medical practices before the 20th century. Thomas Eakins, the painter of “The Gross Clinic,” was from Philadelphia, and considered it to be his greatest accomplishment as an artist. Surgery was the last option for doctors, not the intricate art that it has evolved into. Dr. Samuel Gross embodied the innovation and advancements in medicine during the year “The Gross Clinic” was created: the changes in anesthesia, antisepsis, and education as a whole. “The Gross Clinic” is representative of the lack of resources and rejection of new ideas that characterized medicine before the 20th century, and the major shift in education and new techniques

Prominently featured in the mission statements of virtually of every medical school and medical institution in the world is the call for empathetic doctors. These institutions wish to train medical professionals that possess qualities of sympathy and compassion, and hospitals wish to employ health professionals that showcase similar qualities. The reality, however, is starkly different, as physicians, jaded by what they have seen in the medical world, lose the qualities that drove them to medicine in the first place. In Frank Huyler’s “The Blood of Strangers,” a collection of short stories from his time as a physician in the emergency room, Huyler uses the literary techniques of irony and imagery to depict the reality of the world of a medical professional. While Huyler provides several examples of both techniques in his accounts, moments from “A Difference of Opinion” and “The Secret” in particular stand out. Huyler uses irony and imagery in these two pieces to describe how medical professionals have lost their sense of compassion and empathy due to being jaded and desensitized by the awful incidents they have witnessed during their careers.

In my eyes, doctors are angels in the world, because doctor’s duty is to saving people’s life. So I want to introduce Norman Bethune, a distinguished doctor who contributed a lot to the world. “Internationally, in the opinion of some, he is the most famous Canadian” (Hannant, 1998). Norman Bethune was born in Canada in 1890. He was a talented doctor who graduated from University of Toronto. Bethune also attended many wars and saved many wounded soldiers. On the ruthless battlefield, doctor is another kind of hero with the duty to saving life. Norman Bethune, an influential Canadian physician, medical innovator, contributed to both Canadians and non-Canadians by creating surgical tools, encouraging health care and services in Canada and helping

- When you think of a doctor, what comes to mind? Someone who does everything in their power to save lives might be one of the thoughts. But what if the patients’ of these doctors death is incurable, and no medical involvement can change that fact, than what becomes the role of a doctor?

ADHD, defiance disorder, pregnancy, these are just few of the things medicalized in the West (Davies 1995). With the rising prestige of Doctors in the 19th century, came a widening of the gap of knowledge between Doctors and the general population (Davies 1995). Doctors have kept a sort of lock on medical knowledge, enabling them to medicalize all sorts of “issues” aided by the idea of the medical mystique. But with the emergence of medicalization and cures that are being searched for by Doctors, a new problem has arisen. This fixation on curing illnesses has led to Doctors viewing patients as experiments and not as human beings, this is seen especially in technologically advanced societies as exemplified in the movie Wit. In addition to this new problem, there are clear establishments of hierarchy between medical professionals such as Doctors and nurses as well as the emotional detachments with the patients which can lead to patients feeling left out and alone.

“Brought to Bed”, by Judith Walzer Leavitt, is the story of childbirth in America from 1750 to 1970, and details how women in America dealt with childbirth or being “brought to bed”, the fears they had and how they coped with those fears, as well as the shift from using midwives who came to your home and having a large, female support network surround you, to using doctors and moving from the home setting into a hospital. The book is divided up into several sections, and used the diaries, letters, and notes from both women who were patients and the doctors who tended to them. These chapters deal with the transition from home to hospital by outlining different reasons for why this shift may have occurred, and who the driving force behind this was. The author poses a thesis, “By examining closely the ways childbirth has changed, I hope to illuminate some basic aspects of women’s lives in the past while at the same time analyzing the evolution of medical and

As Beneatha describes the profound moment when she decided to become a doctor, her admirable, although childlike, determination and refusal to set limits on her future is illustrated. Beneatha says while discussing her dream, “...that was what one person could do for another, fix him up-sew up the problem, make him alright again. That was the most marvelous thing in the world...I wanted to do that. I always thought it was the one concrete thing in the world that a human being could do. Fix up the sick, you know - and make them whole again. This was truly being God…” (131). As Beneatha describes her dream with conviction, it is apparent how the decision to pursue her dream was created with faith in the practice, unconcerned with the efforts

Thomas Eakins, an American painter, is recognized for his anatomical depictions of men and women in his paintings. In the Romantic era, it was known for artists to illustrate scenes which evoke emotions; however, Eakins’ The Gross Clinic (1875) bluntly portrayed a bloody surgery, which was not received well, due to the fact that few other painting depicted such a vulgar and graphic scene. In the nineteenth century, men were viewed as the rational, reasonable and intellectual beings, superior over the passive and submissive qualities of women. In that time period, man was considered woman’s superior over God’s appointment. Eakins portrayal of men and women reflect the characters of both sexes present in his society.

Martha Ballard is an 18th century midwife, herbalist, and physician who, for twenty seven years, kept a daily diary. By looking into Martha Ballard’s life we, as historians, gain valuable insight into the everyday lives of women in a brand new country, just on the cusp of beginning. We also discover that Martha’s accounts sometimes greatly differ from accepted historical truths. These can be seen in the difference between both economic history, legal documentation, and popular media written by men. Two of these star new discoveries can be evidenced in medical practices Martha uses and Martha’s importance in

The logic and principles of medieval medicine shaped those of Modern medicine. Never was there a more efficient method perfected, so much that it remained through history through so many hundreds of years. Today’s concepts of diagnosis, relationships with the church, anatomy, surgery, hospitals and training, and public health were established in the Middle Ages.

A great artist once wrote, “If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced”. This artist was Vincent van Gogh, soon to be an appraised artist known all around the world for his works, such as Starry Night. He is one of the very first artists of the post-impressionist style than is now adored in every continent. However, there is much more to the man than one painting. Creating a full timeline that stretches beyond Gogh’s life, this paper will discuss the life of Vincent van Gogh and the impression he made on the world.

This film offers the public an important piece of medical history through the telling of Thomas’ achievements in a way that is thought-provoking. Also, the social issues it raises, for example the relationship