Mattern Galen and the Rhetoric of Healing

Erscheinungsjahr 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8018-9634-7
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 0 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm

Galen is the most important physician of the Roman imperial era. Many of his theories and practices were the basis for medical knowledge for centuries after his death and some practices—like checking a patient’s pulse—are still used today. He also left a vast corpus of writings which makes up a full one-eighth of all surviving ancient Greek literature. Through her readings of hundreds of Galen’s case histories, Susan P. Mattern presents the first systematic investigation of Galen’s clinical practice.

Galen’s patient narratives illuminate fascinating interplay among the craft of healing, social class, professional competition, ethnicity, and gender. Mattern describes the public, competitive, and masculine nature of medicine among the urban elite and analyzes the relationship between clinical practice and power in the Roman household. She also finds that although Galen is usually perceived as self-absorbed and self-promoting, his writings reveal him as sensitive to the patient’s history, symptoms, perceptions, and even words.

Examining his professional interactions in the context of the world in which he lived and practiced, Galen and the Rhetoric of Healing provides a fresh perspective on a foundational figure in medicine and valuable insight into how doctors thought about their patients and their practice in the ancient world.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Mattern, Susan P.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike Römische Geschichte
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Geschichte der Medizin
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Medizin, Gesundheit: Sachbuch, Ratgeber

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface
1. The Stories in Context
I. Society and Culture
Galen's Life
Diseases and Death in Rome
Galen and Greek Culture
Galen's Corpus
Galen's Audience: "Friends and Companions"
Professionalism and Social Status
II. Narrative and Medicine
Hippocratic Case Histories
Case Histories after the Hippocratic Corpus
Inscriptions and the Cult of Asclepius
Written Tradition and Clinical Experience
Case Histories in Galen's Work
Memory and Autobiography
2. Place and Time
I. Context and Authenticity
II. Place
City
Country
Houses
III. Time
Chronology
Medical Time
Time and Narrative Structure
3. The Contest: Rivals, Spectators, and Judges
I. Agon
II. Rivals
Other Physicians
Confrontation
Demonstrating Superiority
III. Audience
Witness and Judge
The Addressee
Friends
Rivals and Patients
Family and Household
Husbands, Fathers, and Masters
IV. Failure
V. Case History and Healing Narrative
4. The Patient
I. Presenting the Patient
Names and Terms
Temperament and Constitution
Age
Sex: Female Patients
Social Information
Conclusion
II. Patient as Character
The Patient's Perspective
The Patient's Lifestyle
Character and Emotion
Conclusion
5. Physician and Patient
I. The Physician's Perspective: "I" and "We"
II. Physician and Patient
Intimacy
Obedience
Perceiving the Patient
III. Fever
6. Conclusion
Appendix A: Works Cited from Galen's Corpus
Appendix B: Table of Cases
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Mattern, Susan P.
Susan P. Mattern is an associate professor of history at the University of Georgia.