For those in the DC area this coming week

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE - History of Medicine Division
SEMINAR IN THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE
Wednesday, September 20, 2006, 2:00-3:15 pm, Lister Hill Visitors Center, Bldg 38A, NLM; Bethesda, MD

The Art of Medicine On Stage: An Historical Perspective

Speaker: Angela Belli, PhD, St. John's University The physician-patient relationship has been depicted in plays created from earliest times to the present, including those of Sophocles, Shakespeare, and a number of modern playwrights. The focus in such works is often on the merits of empathy and "tender charity" in the treatment of physical and psychic disorders. Particularly in periods when scientific knowledge was severely limited, a physician's ability to nurture a patient's wounded spirit has been foregrounded as a much-needed skill capable of effecting a cure. A number of contemporary dramatists, cognizant of the intersecting strands of medical discourse, have taken as their subject the view frequently held by patients and supporting medical ethicists that as medical knowledge has advanced, the practice of nurturing the spirit has appeared to regress or even been lost.

Responding to the issues of the times and emphasizing the need to recover the spirit of empathy as advanced in the dramas of their predecessors, modern playwrights have reaffirmed the essential humanistic perspective with which scientific practice must be infused to create an art of medicine.

Angela Belli is Professor of Literature at St. John's University in New York City.

All are Welcome

Note: The next history of medicine seminar will be on Tuesday, October 17, 2006 from 2:00-3:15pm, in the Lister Hill Auditorium; NLM's Bldg 38A. Dr. Herbert Reynolds of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute will speak on "How Laennec Changed Medical Practice."

Sponsored by the History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine. Sign language interpretation will be provided. Individuals with disabilities who need reasonable accommodation to participate in this event should contact Stephen Greenberg at (301-435-4995), e-mail greenbes@mail.nih.gov, or call the Federal Relay (1-800-877-8339).
Due to current security measures at NIH, off-campus visitors are advised to consult the NIH Visitors and Security website at:
http://www.nih.gov/about/visitorsecurity.htm