http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification 720 https://escholarship.org/uc/medicalhumanities_rw/rss Recent eScholarship items from Perspectives in Medical Humanities: Essays and Articles Wed, 10 Jun 2026 01:39:48 +0000 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0bd4m7s0 Developments in computing and electrical engineering which ushered in the field of cybernetics in the twentieth century raised moral and ethical concerns about how humans perceive machines to possess intelligence, autonomy, and authority. The biggest challenge that each generation has confronted is not machines that truly think, but that humans were willing to treat them as if they do. The ethical dilemma, as philosophers and critics have warned, is not that machines will assume moral agency, but that humans will relinquish their own. The history of artificial intelligence therefore tells us less about the rise of machine minds than about our willingness to redefine intelligence in the image of our inventions. To understand the ethical stakes of AI in education and society today, we must first understand this deeper pattern: that the most consequential transformation may not be in our machines, but in ourselves. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0bd4m7s0 Tue, 24 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Dolan, Brian https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3133q5d3 In this reflective essay, Dr. Matthew Orringer explores the question not of why one pursues medicine, but how one endures the rigors of medical training—particularly the surgical internship year. While acknowledging that other professions may be more difficult, he emphasizes the unique challenges of intern year and the invaluable lessons it imparts in patient care, communication, and endurance. Central to his reflection is the idea that survival and growth in medicine are deeply tied to the camaraderie and mutual support among peers. Drawing parallels to his past experience as a collegiate swimmer, Orringer highlights how shared struggle fosters strong bonds. Whether navigating overwhelming trauma consults or long pre-dawn ICU shifts, he found strength in the presence and perseverance of fellow interns. Ultimately, he concludes that the answer to “How medicine?” lies in collective resilience. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3133q5d3 Tue, 16 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Orringer, Matthew https://escholarship.org/uc/item/04w903fh Throughout history, doctors have distinguished themselves among healthcare providers by referencing special skills and accredited knowledge about the body and disease. Over centuries, increased rigor in educational standards and licensing have crafted the professional identity of physicians, establishing a privileged status in the healthcare hierarchy. This essay provides an overview of how the medical profession has defined itself over time, and it examines how policing professional boundaries has discriminated against and marginalized competitors in the marketplace for medical services. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/04w903fh Mon, 2 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Dolan, Brian https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8111v7v9 An illustrated history of drugs developed for medicinal use from antiquity to modern pharmaceuticals. A primer for health professional students.&nbsp; https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8111v7v9 Wed, 7 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Beitler, Steve, PhD https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7w064921 Anatomy Through History https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7w064921 Wed, 7 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Dolan, Brian https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2md5g0sm Hospitals Through History https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2md5g0sm Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Dolan, Brian https://escholarship.org/uc/item/99z5g993 Music is a complex acoustic signal that relies on a number of different brain and cognitive processes to create the sensation of hearing. Changes in hearing function are generally not a major focus of concern for persons with a majority of neurodegenerative diseases associated with dementia, such as Alzheimer disease (AD). However, changes in the processing of sounds may be an early, and possibly preclinical, feature of AD and other neurodegenerative diseases. The aim of this chapter is to review the current state of knowledge concerning hearing and music perception in persons who have a dementia as a result of a neurodegenerative disease. The review focuses on both peripheral and central auditory processing in common neurodegenerative diseases, with a particular focus on the processing of music and other non-verbal sounds. The chapter also reviews music interventions used for persons with neurodegenerative diseases. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/99z5g993 Thu, 18 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Johnson, Julene K Chow, Maggie L https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4zs8221g Should Art About Child Abuse Be Exhibited in Corridors of Health Professional Schools? https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4zs8221g Thu, 18 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Abramson, Paul Abramson, Tania https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3q35g4q1 Visual and Narrative Comprehension of Trauma https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3q35g4q1 Thu, 18 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Abramson, Paul Abramson, Tania https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5q91q53r On April 17, 2020, San Francisco Mayor London Breed did something that had not been done for 101 years. She issued an order that face masks be worn in public as a measure to help prevent the spread of infectious disease in the midst of a pandemic. This act promptly raised questions about how things were handled a century ago. The media soon picked up on the antics of an “Anti-Mask League” that was formed in San Francisco to protest this inconvenience, noting some historical parallels with public complaint about government overreach. This essay dives deeper into the historical context of the anti-mask league to uncover more information about the identity and possible motivations of those who organized these protests. In particular it shines light on the fascinating presence of the leading woman in the campaign—lawyer, suffragette, and civil rights activist, Mrs. E.C. Harrington. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5q91q53r Wed, 27 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Dolan, Brian https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9pv9z8b9 Before it is too late: professional responsibilities in late-onset Alzheimer's research and pre-symptomatic prediction https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9pv9z8b9 Fri, 22 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Schicktanz, Silke Schweda, Mark Ballenger, Jesse F Fox, Patrick J Halpern, Jodi Kramer, Joel H Micco, Guy Post, Stephen G Thompson, Charis Knight, Robert T Jagust, William J https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4gw3x9sx Factors associated with oncology patients' involvement in shared decision making during chemotherapy https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4gw3x9sx Fri, 22 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Colley, Alexis Halpern, Jodi Paul, Steven Micco, Guy Lahiff, Maureen Wright, Fay Levine, Jon D Mastick, Judy Hammer, Marilyn J Miaskowski, Christine Dunn, Laura B https://escholarship.org/uc/item/38b8s1r3 Perceptions of Successful Aging Among Diverse Elders With Late-Life Disability https://escholarship.org/uc/item/38b8s1r3 Fri, 22 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Romo, R. D Wallhagen, M. I Yourman, L. Yeung, C. C Eng, C. Micco, G. Perez-Stable, E. J Smith, A. K https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3188n4mk Serving the Very Sick, Very Frail, and Very Old: Geriatrics, Palliative Care, and Clinical Ethics https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3188n4mk Fri, 22 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Smith, Alexander K Micco, Guy https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9hk9g798 The history of collective action aimed at disease prevention amongst populations is replete with complexity in the operation of political power which has transformed in its deployment over time. This article draws upon examples from pre-modern and from modern European states to examine variations in the operation of biopower under pandemic authority. It concludes by contextualizing comparable models of political authority responding to the contemporary COVID-19 pandemic including the operation of pandemic biopower in the United States. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9hk9g798 Thu, 21 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Porter, Dorothy https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6qw156h3 Medical students' creative projects on a third year pediatrics clerkship: a qualitative analysis of patient-centeredness and emotional connection https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6qw156h3 Thu, 21 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Shapiro, Johanna Ortiz, Diane Ree, You Y Sarwar, Minha https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0zn1r1tx "Violence" in medicine: necessary and unnecessary, intentional and unintentional https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0zn1r1tx Thu, 21 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Shapiro, Johanna https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9vr8x5tb <p>This paper concerns debates that flourished in the 1960s and 1970s about the effect of technological and scientific development on the “dehumanization” of medicine. It draws on perspectives from neuroscience and neurosurgery to reexamine philosophical positions about the relations between the brain and the mind, the seat of the soul, the divide between the arts and sciences in Western culture, and scientific investigation of “human nature.” Framing the discussion with debates in the 1960s about the gap between science and humanism, it explores the ideas of Caltech psychobiologist Roger Sperry to illuminate a reaction against the molecularization of life and challenges to the intellectual nature of medical inquiry. It draws connections between neurological concepts of the divided brain and the idea that the fields of neurology and neurosurgery might unify what C.P. Snow characterized as the “two cultures” by redefining humanity and creating what Sperry called a “science of human... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9vr8x5tb Mon, 20 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000 Dolan, Brian https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4963v0m4 <p>This essay looks at epistemological challenges to the tenets of evidencebased medicine (EBM) by focusing on some of the ways that statistical data is presented as evidence. Using a framework from the history quantification and digitization in biomedicine, I discuss the uses of the “graphic method” and the status of producing pictures from numbers. The essay draws attention to the complicated relationship between statistical representation within EBM and the way risk factors are communicated in the physicianpatient relationship for decision-making. The essay questions the position of morality underlying the art of evidence.</p><p>This essay was originally presented at Social Medicine Grand Rounds, UCSF, May 2, 2007. Revised with updated references for digital publication May 2020.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4963v0m4 Mon, 20 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000 Dolan, Brian https://escholarship.org/uc/item/46f8k74j <p>This paper discusses some of the ways that museological activities in France and Britain (in the Louvre and the British Museum) were aligned with the human sciences to offer new commentaries about the development and maintenance of civilisation—both ancient and modern. During what I partly anachronistically refer to as the ‘revolutionary’ decades—the 1790s to the 1810s (a reference I stick to because it falls in the middle of Eric Hobsbawm’s ‘Age of Revolution’)—British and French commentators chose to represent ancient civilisation in such a way as to show that they were respectively the inheritors of the ancient principles of virtue, liberty, and democracy. Today, I sketch the apparent associations that were made between the civility of the ancients and the self-defined civility of modern imperial rulers, the missionaries of the civilising process of the rest of the world.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/46f8k74j Mon, 20 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000 Dolan, Brian https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3ff8p55n <p>This paper explores how international identities have been historically treated which allows us to see how cultural relativity has grown to be part of the treatment of foreign, as well as one’s own, society. Whether referring to present concerns over human rights and environmentalism or historical concerns over imperial expansion, the distribution of disease, or rights to ‘citizenship,’ different nations have used cultural comparisons to distinguish the progressive society from the barbaric, the civilised from the uncivilised, the modern from the ‘traditional’ society. These categories, like all classification systems, have always had problematic boundaries. But through travel and the uses of Enlightenment ‘sciences of man’ to inspect foreign frontiers, strides were made to map the margins of the historical and scientific classification of populations—‘primitive’ or ‘enlightened,’ within a ‘European’ or ‘extra-European’ domain. This paper looks at eighteenth-century theories... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3ff8p55n Mon, 20 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000 Dolan, Brian https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2bz968nw <p>While the status and lifestyles (if we can excuse that word) of English women may not have been the key feature of what has come to be characteristic of English culture in the Age of Enlightenment, this paper considers it something of an enigma as to why English women could not find happiness at home and wanted to leave their land to travel abroad. European women believed that continental travel had something to offer everyone—from climate to artistic culture—but if we focus on the opinions of women who were seeking political and intellectual enlightenment, European and British women saw in each other something they did not see in themselves. By examining the writings of eighteenth-century women travellers, this paper explores themes of identity, education, experience, and enlightenment.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2bz968nw Mon, 20 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000 Dolan, Brian