The Healing Arts An Oxford Illustrated Anthology

From birth and adolescence through maturity and old age, our lives are punctuated by sudden medical emergencies and by chronic illnesses, and by encounters with doctors, nurses, and other care-givers. Physicians and patients, operations and cures, suffering and compassion--all are part of the
reality of human existence. Now, in a beautifully illustrated volume, R.S. Downie offers a vibrant, kaleidoscopic look at the healing arts, bringing together eclectic and engaging excerpts from fiction, poetry, drama, and letters, and by writers as diverse as Paraclesus, Francis Bacon, and Joseph
Heller.
Here are celebrations and laments, such as in Sylvia Plath's "Morning Song" ("Love set you going like a fat gold watch, / The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry / Took its place among the elements"); in Hippocrates' From Epidemics; in Franz Schubert's eloquent last letter to Franz
von Schober, telling of his illness; in Susan Sontag's Illness as Metaphor discussing TB and cancer as "diseases of passion"; or in Philip Larkin's acerbic verses on birth, aging, and mourning. Caretakers and caregivers share their thoughts, as in Walt Whitman's "From the Wound-Dresser," Florence
Nightingale's Notes on Nursing, and William Carlos Williams's "Tract." And of course there is great need for humor and a lighter touch in healing, which Downie reflects in many offbeat and witty entries, ranging from Stephen Sondheim's "Gee, Officer Krupke," to Richard Asher's "Why are Medical
Journals so Dull?" ("Many of the titles are unattractive.... Titles such as 'A Trial of 4.4-Diethyl-hydro-balderdashic Acid in Acute Coryzal Infections' are far better changed to 'A New Treatment forColds'). And the anthology is rounded out by paintings and drawings.
The arts can be entertaining, moving, disturbing, consoling, and rich in insight, comments Downie in his preface. And as he demonstrates in this rich anthology, the arts can be healing as well. Indeed, not o

Medicine and the arts have in common a concern for all aspects of people's lives. This delightful anthology celebrates the many ways in which they interact. Robin Downie has mixed together a rich concoction of poems, stories, prose extracts, music, paintings, and drawings which illustrate the fundamental issues of birth, life, and death. From reviews of the hardback edition The best presents are often those you want to buy for yourself and part with only grudgingly. The Healing Arts falls headlong into this class. New Scientist This book is really much better than any anthology has a right to be... remarkably handsome: large format, good paper, spacious layouts, colour plates, and photographs... but the most striking aspect is the quality and variety of the selected items, and the way in which they flow and are mutually reinforcing.' Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of London ' a splendid anthology ... Downie's anthology is interesting, varied ... and fun to dip into.' The Lancet Here's some cultural diversion for anyone on the mend from the surgeon's knife or fighting illness, or indeed for the hypochondriac. Read Betjeman on nurses, Larkin on ambulances, and C S Lewis on grief. And more in the same vein.' Focus ... a delightful collection of poetry, essay, and musical score, punctuated by carefully selected drawings and paintings. It is undoubtedly a delightful gift for almost anyone in medicine, and a goodly number outside the profession. British Journal of Anaesthesia He has compiled a beautiful and inspiring collection of poems, drawings, paintings, cartoons, music and excerpts from books and journals to give pleasure, to heal and inform, and to "stretch the imagination, deepen the sympathy and enrich perspectives" ... It superbly fulfills Downie's goal of bringing pleasure, stretching the imagination, and deepening sympathy. I strongly recommend it to those of you who value the arts and have some association with the medical profession. The Medical Humanities Review This book is a gem which will have wide appeal.... It breaks new ground in using art, prose and poetry to explore interactions between medicine and the arts. Journal of Medical Ethics

1 - Preface
2 - List of illustrations
3 - Introduction
4 - The way we are
5 - Disease and mental illness
6 - Doctors and psychiatrists
7 - Nurses and patients
8 - Healing
9 - Last things
10 - Research
11 - Ethics and purpose

Robin Downie is Professor of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow University, and the author of several OUP books, including Health Promotion (2/e, 1996) and Healthy Respect (1994). An accomplished pianist and composer, he is also the convenor of an interdisciplinary group which meets to discuss medicine and its relation to art, music, and literature.