Improvising Medicine is a must-read ethnography for students interested in bridging the gap between culture, history, and global health and medicine. Julie Livingston weaves real, grueling medical stories of advanced-stage cancer patients from the lone cancer ward in the entire southern African country of Botswana – in Gaborone’s Princess Marina Hospital. In a country where the primary, and more heavily funded, health focus has been HIV/AIDS, increased cancer awareness and the rise of “AIDS-related cancers” have led to a cancer epidemic. She argues that Africans are “living in a carcinogenic time and place,” rooted in a combination of infectious disease, environmental pollutants, and the tobacco industry (Livingston 51). The heart of the
book, and Livingston’s message, lies in the cancer ward itself: its dedicated staff of local nurses, led by a passionate foreign physician named Dr. P, and its patients and their families. Dr. P’s methods of care are of great importance for students reading this book that are interested in medicine and global health: Livingston discusses how his care is “improvised” by necessity, due to the need to apply medical knowledge and standards of care to the “technical, biological, and social conditions of medical care in Botswana” (20). The last point, on social conditions, is of additional importance due to the importance stressed on maintaining a strong social and cultural literacy as a physician in the 21st century. This is evident in Dr. P through his efforts to make cancer a more palpable and comprehensible illness to his patients, effectively translating it from biomedical terms to “vernacular forms of embodiment” (77). These skills are essential for the aspiring physician. The nurses of the PMH Cancer Ward reveal the importance of ethical care as well as the social aspect of medicine. They provide a holistic level of care, from physical and often intimate cleaning of wounds and bathing patients, to singing and praying for their patients each morning. To Livingston, these acts embody the humanistic aspect of medicine that is increasingly a large part of effective palliative care. There are three major themes that Livingston focuses on, and interweaves throughout her book. The first is that practicing medicine in Africa, where resources are unpredictable and never guaranteed, involves improvisation. Secondly, cancer is a social experience shared between the patients, their loved ones, and their caregivers. For example, bodily experiences such as pain and disfigurement, most notably illustrated in the brief but fascinating segment on amputation, is placed in a context where families assist in care by washing pungent wounds, nurses often times treat their own relatives in the wards, beds are physically close to each other, all culminating in an inadvertently social experience. Lastly, cancer is an epidemic that will change the landscape of public health in sub-Saharan Africa, where most diseases are associated with simple solutions. The prolonging of life through antiretroviral therapy for HIV/AIDS has caused a surge in infectious disease-related cancers such as cervical cancer and Kaposi’s sarcoma, a cancer that develops at a faster rate than normal in HIV patients. Thus, cancer in Africa is a very real problem that needs to be taken a closer look at, with real solutions necessary. By reading this book, one can gain a better grasp on not only its role in biologically affecting this patient demographic, but also understand its social and emotional impact on society and relationships.
Before I watched 'A Midwife's Tale', a movie created from the diary found by Laurel Ulrich chronicling the life of a woman named Martha Ballard, I thought the women in these times were just housewives and nothing else. I pictured them doing the cleaning and the cooking for their husbands and not being very smart because of the lack of education or them being unable to work. My view on the subject changed however when I watched this specific woman's life and her work.
“I never found myself needing that piece of paper,” is a remark actor Johnny Depp made back in 2010 about his relationship with longtime partner Vanessa Paradis. Depp and Paradis have been in a relationship since 1998 and have two children together, Lily Rose and Jack. Another member of Hollywood’s elite, Latin singer Shakira, shares a similar view saying that marriage is like a contract, and that is unromantic. However, celebrities living like Shakira and Depp are also committing fornication and already view themselves as being married; the marriage is just not official. This draws comparisons to Ernest Gaines’ novel 'A Lesson Before Dying'. Two of the novel’s main characters, Grant and Vivian, have sex outside of marriage because they cannot be married since Vivian is still legally married to another man (Gaines 29). Even though of Vivian’s situation differs slightly from that of Depp’s, the act is still the same. These adults are conducting the act of sex outside of marriage; they are either ignoring what their religion teaches on the subject or do not care what religion has to say.
The drama, Mission of Mercy, by Esther Lipnick is a very inspiring read. It tells about a girl who doesn’t want to be like her proper, fancy family at all. Instead she wants to become a nurse. She leaves her home and becomes a nurse. It inspires me because both of my parents, and other family members of mine, are teachers, although I’m not going to be one. Mission of Mercy is a drama that could inspire many people to go for what they want, even if other people don’t always approve of it. Florence changes throughout all of the the scenes 1, 2, and 3.
I enjoyed reading Disciplined Hearts by Theresa O'Nell because i find that many people today do not know a lot about the Native American culture and what they have been through. Their cultures history is not talked about as much the African American or Hispanic's are. Most Americans know about the hardships that the African American and Hispanics had to overcome to assimilate to the level that they are today. I think O'Nell is trying to talk about the history of the Native American culture because, she believes that the reason that their culture is not well-known because of the fact that they have chosen to keep living like their ancestors and not assimilate to the American culture.
Angell, Marcia. "The Ethics of Clinical Research in the Third World." New England Journal of Medicine. 337.12 847-849. Web. 9 Feb. 2014.
In the book Ordinary people by Judith Guest it shows how the book advocates for the therapist by Dr. Berger helping Conrad and his dad, Dr. Berger is there for him at all times, and Dr. Berger stays calm at all times.
Every individual has two lives, the life we live, and the life we live after that. Nobody is perfect, but if one works hard enough, he or she can stay away from failure. The Natural is a novel written by Bernard Malamud. It is Malamud’s first novel that initially received mixed reactions but afterwards, it was regarded as an outstanding piece of literature. It is a story about Roy Hobbs who after making mistakes in his life, he returns the bribery money and is left with self-hatred for mistakes he has done. Hobbs was a baseball player who aspired to be famous, but because of his carnal and materialistic desire, his quest for heroism failed, as he was left with nothing. In the modern world, the quest for heroism is a difficult struggle, and this can be seen through the protagonist in The Natural.
In the story, The Natural, certain characters and events are portrayed in a distinctive way that makes this story unique to other books and shows the typical writing style of the narrator. The author uses a repetitive writing technique that is impossible to overlook. The writer of this book is able to catch the reader’s eye with his concept of the importance of beautiful description. The Natural, by Bernard Malamud, uses great imagery that makes the story appealing.
When Thomas Jefferson wrote the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, it became one of his greatest legacies. In the first line he wrote, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" (U.S. Constitution, paragraph 2). Jefferson wrote these words to give inspiration to future generations in the hopes that they would be able to change what he either would or could not. The word “men” in the Declaration in the early 1700 and 1800’s meant exactly that, but even then it only was true for some men, not all. Women, children, and other segments of the population such as slaves and Native Americans were clearly not included. Jefferson himself was a slave owner and held the belief that women were inferior to men. Though women played no role in the political environment, they were crucial to the development and economic success of the times. The strength, courage and work ethic of pioneer women like Martha Ballard in “A Midwife’s Tale” (Thatcher, 1990) created the very fabric of the community and wove it together so the community could thrive.
In examining 28, we saw Nolen’s literary merit. Nolen seamlessly combined personal stories with factual evidence, included and defeated counter-arguments, and inspired us, people half a world away, to truly care about this urgent issue and care for those impacted. 28 Stories of AIDS in Africa is a must read for all, especially those with common misconceptions about AIDS. Nolen gracefully rejects the misunderstandings while breaking down the wall of stigma and meticulously pinpoints the results of HIV/AIDS on the lives of the innocent. This is a must-read book that can shape opinions as never before.
who were there but learn them in such a way that we are allowed to
Peter Conrad’s book, The Medicalization of Society: On the Transformation of Human Conditions into Treatable Disorders, examined several cases of human conditions, once viewed as normal, now considered as medical issues. Conrad defined this transition of human problems to disorders that are medically defined, studied, diagnosed and treated as “medicalization”. Specifically, Conrad discussed certain conditions, such as adult ADHD, as age related phenomena that have been medicalized. Throughout, Conrad demonstrated how these issues became medically defined because of the current research and financing structure of medicine in the United States. Those newly defined illnesses changed people’s perceptions and expectations of health and old age, thus dramatically altering society’s expectations of medicine and subsequent life quality. Conrad’s ethnography is a good example of the ethnomedical approach to medical anthropology that addressed several health conditions that are prominent in the United States. He culminated his book by arguing medicalization primarily serves as a form of social control, solving problems with individuals and not society. While the book clearly explained a wide range of negative causes and effects of medicalization, Conrad only acknowledged a few examples of successful resistance briefly in his last chapter. In order to empower its readers beyond education, the book should have examined these instances of anti-medicalization to find similarities and derive productive countermeasures for individuals to follow. Conrad thoroughly outlined the history, examples and influencing factors that promote medicalization, but failed to offer any combative solution to the resulting problems of medicalization.
Feminist theory is a term that embraces a wide variety of approaches to the questions of a women’s place and power in culture and society. Two of the important practices in feminist critique are raising awareness of the ways in which women are oppressed, demonized, or marginalized, and discovering motifs of female awakenings. The Help is a story about how black females “helped” white women become “progressive” in the 1960’s. In my opinion, “The Help” I must admit that it exposes some of our deepest racial, gender, and class wounds as individuals and social groups, and that the story behind the story is a call to respect our wounds and mutual wounding so that healing may have a chance to begin and bring social injustice to an end. The relationship between Blacks and whites in this novel generally take on the tone of a kindly, God-fearing Jesus Christ-loving Black person, placidly letting blacks and whites work out their awkwardness regarding race and injustice. Eventually both the black and white women realize how similar they are after all, and come to the conclusion that racism is an action of the individual person, a conclusion mutually exclusive of racism as an institutionalized system that stands to demonize and oppress people based on the color of their skin and the location of their ancestry.
To what extent does Carol Ann Duffy’s poem ‘Medusa’ challenge stereotypical masculine and feminine attributes?
More than just the disease by Bernard MacLaverty. ‘More than just the disease’ by Bernard MacLaverty, focuses on a young man. boy, Neil, who has a skin condition called psoriasis. This disease makes Neil feel insecure and his mother’s attitude towards him also. does not help, she is almost ashamed of her sons condition and this.