Physician writer

Physician writers are physicians who write creatively in fields outside their practice of medicine.

The following is a partial list of physician-writers by historic epoch or century in which the author was born, arranged in alphabetical order.

Antiquity

Middle Ages

15th century

16th century

17th century

18th century

19th century

20th century

21st century

Why physicians write

Physicians have a long history, dating back to Greek medicine, of literary activities. This may have its origins in mythology. Apollo was the god of both poetry and medicine. Pallas Athene was the goddess of poetry, healing and war. Brigit was the Celtic patroness of poets, smiths and healers.

It is thought that through their privileged and intimate contact with those moments of greatest human drama (birth, illness, injury, suffering, disease, death) physicians are in a unique position to observe, record and create the stories that make us human. "The clinical gaze [has] much in common with the artist's eye."[51]

Robert Louis Stevenson, in his Preface to Underwoods,[52] described this unique privilege:

There are men and classes of men that stand above the common herd: the soldier, the sailor, and the shepherd not infrequently; the artist rarely; rarelier still, the clergyman; the physician almost as a rule. He is the flower (such as it is) of our civilization; and when that stage of man is done with, and only to be marvelled at in history, he will be thought to have shared as little, as any in the defects of the period, and most notably exhibited the virtues of the race. Generosity he has, such as is possible to those who practise an art, never to those who drive a trade; discretion, tested by a hundred secrets; tact, tried in a thousand embarrassments; and what are more important, Heraclean cheerfulness and courage. So that he brings air and cheer into the sick room, and often enough, though not so often as he wishes, brings healing.

The challenges of combining medical practice with writing are addressed by neurologist and pharmacologist Harold L. Klawans in his study, Chekhov's Lie.[53]

Worldwide organizations

In 1955 a group of physician-writers created the International Federation of Societies of Physician-Writers (FISEM). One of the founders was Dr. André Soubiran, author of Hommes en blanc (The Doctors). Other founders included Italian Professors Nasi and Lombroso, Belgian Drs. Sévery and Thiriet, Swiss physicians Junod and René Kaech, and eminent French writers of the medical academy. Dr. Mirko Skoficz was a key figure at the first FISEM congress in San Remo, Italy, along with his wife, Italian film star Gina Lollobrigida.

In 1973 FISEM changed its name to UMEM—Union Mondiale des Écrivains Médécins, or World Union of Physician Writers.[42] Its current president is Dr. Carlos Vieira Reis of Portugal. UMEM is an umbrella organization that subsumes physician-writer groups in:

Anglophone associations

In the Anglophone world, the lead has been taken by New York University (NYU) with their encyclopedic Literature, Arts & Medicine Database <http://litmed.med.nyu.edu> and blog <http://medhum.med.nyu.edu/blog/>. An associated resource is the Medical Humanities directory: http://medhum.med.nyu.edu/directory.html.

These sites were established in 1994 at the New York University School of Medicine and were:

“dedicated to providing a resource for scholars, educators, students, patients, and others who are interested in the work of medical humanities. We define the term ‘medical humanities’ broadly to include an interdisciplinary field of humanities (literature, philosophy, ethics, history and religion), social science (anthropology, cultural studies, psychology, sociology), and the arts (literature, theater, film, and visual arts) and their application to medical education and practice. The humanities and arts provide insight into the human condition, suffering, personhood, our responsibility to each other, and offer a historical perspective on medical practice. Attention to literature and the arts helps to develop and nurture skills of observation, analysis, empathy, and self-reflection – skills that are essential for humane medical care. The social sciences help us to understand how bioscience and medicine take place within cultural and social contexts and how culture interacts with the individual experience of illness and the way medicine is practiced.”[68]

Dr. Daniel Bryant, an American internist, has compiled an extensive list of fellow physician writers.[69]

The Johns Hopkins University Press publishes Literature and Medicine, "a journal devoted to exploring interfaces between literary and medical knowledge and understanding. Issues of illness, health, medical science, violence, and the body are examined through literary and cultural texts."[70]

Dartmouth Medical School publishes Lifelines (literary journal) an art and literature journal dedicated to featuring the works of physicians[71] and their experiences in medicine.

The British Medical Association keeps an updated, though selective, list of Physician-Writers on its web site.[72]

See also

Notes

  1. "Petrycy Sebastian, Encyklopedia Polski (Encyclopedia of Poland), Kraków, Wydawnictwo Ryszard Kluszczyński, 1996, ISBN 83-86328-60-6, p. 496.
  2. Keith Thomas, "The Greening Genius of Thomas Browne", The New York Review of Books, vol. LXII, no. 16 (22 October 2015), pp. 67–69.
  3. W Osier, John Keats–the apothecary poet, Johns Hopkins Husp Bull 7 (1896), pp. 11–16.
  4. The San Antonio College LitWeb Tobias Smollett Page
  5. "Josephine Bell".
  6. http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/chekhovbio.html<br
  7. "The Arthur Conan Doyle Society Home Page".
  8. "The Chronicles of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle".
  9. "William Henry Drummond".
  10. "R. Austin Freeman".
  11. SEARC'S WEB GUIDE – Oliver St. John Gogarty (1878–1957)
  12. http://www.caxtonclub.org/reading/smaugham.html<br
  13. In: SW Mitchell, Editor, The autobiography of a quack and other stories, The Century Co, New York (1915), pp. 83–109.
  14. Perović S and Sirovica S. "[Life and work of Dr. Bozo Pericić (1865-1947), genius of our medicine].".
  15. https://web.archive.org/20060528180053/http://www.encyclopedia.com:80/html/s/schnitzl.asp. Archived from the original on 28 May 2006. Retrieved 9 March 2008. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  16. "Adolfo Valderrama Sainz de la Peña - Reseñas Biográficas Parlamentarias".
  17. "PAL: William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)".
  18. "Charlotte Wolff".
  19. "Vassily Aksyonov". eNotes.
  20. Photo: http://www.wiw.pl/literatura/obrazki/autorzy_30.jpg
  21. "Samson's Quest".
  22. "100 Masters of Crime - Paul Carson".
  23. "Peter Clement - Official Website".
  24. jlc
  25. Belli A, Coulehan J. Blood and Bone – Poems by Physicians. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press; 1998
  26. "Ricorso: Digital materials for the study and appreciation of Anglo-Irish Literature".
  27. "Internationally Bestselling Author Tess Gerritsen". Tess Gerritsen.
  28. "Bernard Knight at Tangled Web UK".
  29. " ". Jewishaustralia.com. Retrieved 2013-12-12.
  30. Anne MacLeod – Books From Scotland
  31. Martin MacIntyre / Màrtainn Mac an t-Saoir – Books From Scotland
  32. "Home Page di Autore non presente".
  33. "Keith McCarthy - The official website of Author Keith McCarthy".
  34. Modarressi – Murphy
  35. Merrill Moore (1903–1957)
  36. "Nelson Erlick :: Author's Official Site".
  37. Quoted from Maggie Scarf in The New Republic review of Night Thoughts: Reflections of a Sex Therapist
  38. "Michael Palmer Books".
  39. "Department of English".
  40. Steve Pieczenik
  41. Reich, Joe (2011). I Know Precious Little. Australia: Sid Harta. ISBN 1-921829-70-2.
  42. 1 2 UMEM
  43. Prof. C. Savona-Ventura
  44. "Teen Ink".
  45. Shem, S. (2002). "Fiction as Resistance". Annals of Internal Medicine 137 (11): 934–7. doi:10.7326/0003-4819-137-11-200212030-00022. PMID 12459000.
  46. "MAA - Alumni Profile - David Shobin '69".
  47. ::alison sinclair::science, medicine, and science fiction::
  48. Liukkonen, Petri. "Frank G. Slaughter". Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on 10 February 2015.
  49. "John Stone (1936-2008)". New Georgia Encyclopedia.
  50. "PROSE POÉTIQUE EN MINIATURE, Téléphone de Barbara SZEFFER-MARCINKOWSKA".
  51. McLellan, M. F. (1997). "Literature and medicine: Physician-writers". The Lancet 349 (9051): 564–7. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(97)80120-1. PMID 9048804.
  52. Edinburgh edition, 1894; London, Charles Baxter & Sidney Colvin.
  53. Harold L. Klawans, Chekhov's Lie, 1997, ISBN 1-888799-12-9.
  54. Sociétés | UMEM – Union Mondiale des Écrivains Médecins
  55. pt.wikipedia – Sobrames
  56. Sociétés | UMEM – Union Mondiale des Écrivains Médecins
  57. "Ecrivains-Medecins.com".
  58. Sociétés | UMEM – Union Mondiale des Écrivains Médecins
  59. Sociétés | UMEM – Union Mondiale des Écrivains Médecins
  60. Sociétés | UMEM – Union Mondiale des Écrivains Médecins
  61. Sociétés | UMEM – Union Mondiale des Écrivains Médecins
  62. Sociétés | UMEM – Union Mondiale des Écrivains Médecins
  63. Sociétés | UMEM – Union Mondiale des Écrivains Médecins
  64. Sociétés | UMEM – Union Mondiale des Écrivains Médecins
  65. Sociétés | UMEM – Union Mondiale des Écrivains Médecins
  66. Sociétés | UMEM – Union Mondiale des Écrivains Médecins
  67. Sociétés | UMEM – Union Mondiale des Écrivains Médecins
  68. "LitMed: Literature Arts Medicine Database".
  69. Bryant, D. C. (1994). "A roster of twentieth-century physicians writing in English". Literature and Medicine 13 (2): 284–305. doi:10.1353/lm.2010.0003. PMID 7823633.
  70. "The Johns Hopkins University Press".
  71. Lifelines, 2011-2012, A Literary & Art Journal from The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
  72. http://www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/Content/LIBDoctorWriters

References

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