Download or read book The Soul of Medicine A Physician s Exploration of Death and the Question of Being Human written by James Raymond, MD and published by Hybrid Global Publishing. This book was released on 2021-05-21 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Entering medicine was not something I contemplated from the beginning. I wanted to be a scientist... until I became disillusioned with that enterprise. Currently I’m a physician executive recently retired. Following medical school, I trained in Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine. It’s the latter that I practiced clinically. Through an exploration of great thinkers and philosophers, coupled with my own interactions with patients and colleagues, I’ve come to understand that medicine is a social, moral, philosophical, and existential enterprise, of which science is only one aspect.
Download or read book The Soul of Medicine written by MD James Raymond and published by Hybrid Global Publishing. This book was released on 2018-11-20 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unlike many individuals who enter medicine, it was not something I contemplated from the beginning. I wanted to be a scientist...until I became disillusioned with that enterprise. Currently I'm a physician executive recently retired. Following medical school, I trained in Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine. It's the latter that I practiced clinically. Through an exploration of great thinkers and philosophers, coupled with my own interactions with patients and colleagues, I've come to understand that medicine is a social, moral, philosophical, and existential enterprise, of which science is only one aspect. I respect science, but don't worship it. Science is about facts that can be tested; philosophy and the humanities are about ideas that can be imagined, and stories that can be told. Through the presentation of philosophical and normative issues, elucidated through stories, my goal in writing this book is to inspire tomorrow's physicians, medical ethicists, and other healers and thinkers to reject the roles we've been assigned, become more authentic in our everyday lives, and transcend the inadequacy of science through imagination and improvisation. This is how the Soul of Medicine will be restored.
Download or read book The Soul of Medicine written by John R. Peteet and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2011-12-15 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To what extent should spiritual information be part of a patient’s medical assessment? How should physicians respond when patients refuse life-saving care on religious grounds? Should doctors pray with their patients? Questions such as these raise deeper ones about the goals of medicine and the nature of healing. In a set of engaging and candid essays, The Soul of Medicine explores the role and influence of spirituality in clinical practice, professionalism, and medical education. The contributors to this volume approach this topic from their own spiritual perspectives—Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, New Age / Eclectic, secular, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Christian Scientist. Their thought-provoking essays provide rich insights not only into the needs of patients with various world views but also into how spirituality influences the practice of medicine. When their own spiritual issues arise in medical practice, physicians rely on their professionalism, ethics, and education. To better understand how various world views are incorporated into clinical work, doctors must ask themselves—as these contributors have—a series of important questions: What insights about life and healing does your faith provide? How does your faith challenge or reinforce contemporary medicine? How do you assess and address spirituality in clinical practice? How do your own beliefs influence your interactions with patients? The Soul of Medicine encourages medical students and practitioners to recognize the spiritual dimensions of medicine, to consider how these dimensions inform their own education and practice, and to be compassionate about their patients’—and their own—religious beliefs.
Download or read book From Spinoza to L vinas written by Zeev Levy and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2009 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pt. I. Politics and hermeneutics in the philosophies of Spinoza and Mendelssohn -- Tolerance, liberty and equality -- Spinoza's and Maimonides' esoteric writings -- Pt. II. Philosophical hermeneutics -- Biblical hermeneutics : J.G. Herder and J.W. von Goethe -- Hermeneutics and demythologization : Martin Buber and Rudolf Bultmann -- Hermeneutics and tradition -- Pt. III. Ethics and contemporary Jewish thought -- Death, dying, body, and soul -- Does it make sense to speak about Jewish ethics? -- Pt. IV. Lévinas, politics, and contemporary Jewish thought -- Lévinas on state, revolution, and utopia -- Lévinas on secularization -- Lévinas on death and hope.
Download or read book Islamic Ethics of Life written by Jonathan E. Brockopp and published by Univ of South Carolina Press. This book was released on 2021-02-09 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A pioneering work on controversial issues within the Muslim world Islamic Ethics of Life considers three of the most contentious ethical issues of our time—abortion, war, and euthanasia—from the Muslim perspective. Distinguished scholars of Islamic studies have collaborated to produce a volume that both integrates Muslim thinking into the field of applied ethics and introduces readers to an aspect of the religion long overlooked in the West. This collective effort sets forth the relationship between Islamic ethics and law, clearly revealing the complexity and richness of the Islamic tradition as well as its responsiveness to these controversial modern issues. The contributors analyze classical sources and survey the modern ethical landscape to identify guiding principles within Islamic ethical thought. Clarifying the importance of pragmatism in Islamic decision making, the contributors also offer case studies related to specialized topics, including "wrongful birth" claims, terrorist attacks, and brain death. The case studies elicit possible variations on common Muslim perspectives. The contributors situate Muslim ethics relative to Christian and secular accounts of the value of human life, exposing surprising similarities and differences. In an introductory overview of the volume, Jonathan E. Brockopp underscores the steady focus on God as the one who determines the value of human life, and hence as the final arbiter of Islamic ethics. A foreword by Gene Outka places the volume in the context of general ethical studies, and an afterword by A. Kevin Reinhart suggests some significant ramifications for comparative religious ethics.
Download or read book Psyche and Soma written by John P. Wright and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Psyche and Soma is a multi-disciplinary exploration of the conceptions of the human soul or mind and body, through the course of more than two thousand years of Western history. Thirteen specially commissioned chapters, each written by a recogized expert, discuss figures such as the physiciansHippocrates, Galen, Stahl, and Cabanis; theologians St Paul, Augustine, and Aquinas; and philosophers from Plato and Aristotle to Descartes, Leibniz, and La Mettrie. The chapters explore in chronlogical sequence the views of these writers on such questions as the soul's immortality, the control itexerts over the body, how mental disturbances arise out of bodily imbalances, and the roles of the priest and the physician in promoting spiritual and mental health. Psyche and Soma will be a key point of reference and a rich source of illumination in this central area of human inquiry.
Download or read book Medicine Health and Being Human written by Lesa Scholl and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-05-11 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Medicine, Health and Being Human begins a conversation to explore how the medical has defined us: that is, the ways in which perspectives of medicine and health have affected cultural understandings of what it means to be human. With chapters that span from the early modern period through to the contemporary world, and are drawn from a range of disciplines, this volume holds that incremental historical and cultural influences have brought about an understanding of humanity in which the medical is ingrained, consciously or unconsciously, usually as a mode of legitimisation. Divided into three parts, the book follows a narrative path from the integrity of the human soul, through to the integrity of the material human body, then finally brought together through engaging with end-of-life responses. Part 1 examines the move from spirituality to psychiatry in terms of the way medical science has influenced cultural understandings of the mind. Part 2 interrogates the role that medicine has played in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in constructing and deconstructing the self and other, including the fusion of visual objectivity and the scientific gaze in constructing perceptions of humanity. Part 3 looks at the limits of medicine when the integrity of one body breaks down. It contends with the ultimate question of the extent to which humanity is confined within the integrity of the human body, and how medicine and the humanities work together toward responding to the finality of death. This is a valuable contribution for all those interested in the medical humanities, history of medicine, history of ideas and the social approaches to health and illness.
Download or read book The A Z of Death and Dying written by Michael John Brennan and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2014-02-17 with total page 848 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This engaging and informative resource provides readers with an understanding of the social, cultural, and historical influences that shape our encounters with death, dying, and bereavement—a universal experience across humanity. Written in an engaging and accessible style by leading international scholars and practitioners from within the field of death and bereavement studies, this book will have broad appeal, providing in a single volume insights from some of the key thinkers within the interdisciplinary field of death, dying, and bereavement. Its approximately 200 entries will serve as useful starting points for those new to the topic and will be informative to those already acquainted with some of the core concepts and ideas within this burgeoning field of inquiry. This encyclopedia will serve as an essential resource for high school and undergraduate students, those engaged in independent research, and professionals whose work involves caring for the dead, dying, and bereaved. It will also be of great interest to general readers intrigued by the social, medical, and cultural dimensions to human mortality. Underscored by the inescapable biological certainties that affect us all, The A–Z of Death and Dying offers a highly relevant examination of the social and historical variation in the rituals, practices, and beliefs surrounding the end of life.
Download or read book Islam and Biomedicine written by Afifi al-Akiti and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-08-27 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book showcases multidisciplinary research at the intersection of the Islamic tradition and biomedicine. Within this broad area of scholarship, this book considers how Islamic theological constructs align with the science and practice of medicine, and in so doing offer resources for bridging the challenges of competing ontological visions, varied epistemic frameworks, and different theologies of life and living among the bodies of knowledge. By bringing together theologians, medical practitioners and intellectual historians, the book spurs deeper conversations at the intersection of these fields and provides fundamental resources for further dedicated research.
Download or read book Care for the Dying written by Andrew Davison and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2014-07-16 with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This wise and practical handbook, written by a palliative care physician and a priest with experience in hospice ministry, addresses the needs of the dying, their relatives and friends, and also those who provide support and care. Recognizing that these needs are physical, emotional, and spiritual, Care for the Dying draws on insights from current best practice in palliative care, pastoral experience, and theological reflection. It explores the following: --the availability of care for the dying person --communicating with the family --responding to a request for assisted suicide --forgiveness, reconciliation and anointing --saying goodbyes --the mystery of suffering --dying with dignity --supporting the bereaved --caring for the carers. Throughout, there is a helpful emphasis on understanding the care of the dying as a privilege as well as a responsibility, on the importance of proper self-care and of gaining strength from working as a team. Many people, including medical professionals and clergy, are fearful of what to say or do when faced with approaching death. This resource will deepen understanding and build courage and confidence.
Download or read book Death Dying and Bereavement written by Cecilia Lai Wan Chan and published by Hong Kong University Press. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fear marks the boundary between the known and the unknown. Some Chinese people believe that talking about death will increase the likelihood of occurrence. Also, by talking about death, evil spirits will be attracted to haunt people. In facing death, individual response is inevitably moulded by the values, attitudes, and beliefs of one's culture. Despite the large Chinese emigrant population in major cities in the world, available material in English on death, dying and bereavement among Chinese people is scarce. As Hong Kong is a place where East meets West, most professionals working in the field of death, dying and bereavement adapt knowledge from the West to their practice with the Chinese population. The intention of this volume is to consolidate and disseminate valuable practical wisdom with professionals in the local and international communities who serve Chinese patients and their family members. Both Editors are from the Department of Social Work and Social Administration, University of Hong Kong. Professor Cecilia Lai Wan Chan has done extensive research in psychosocial oncology, behavioral health, grief, loss and bereavement. Amy Yin Man Chow, an Honorary Clinical Associate in the department, is a registered social worker specialized in bereavement counselling.
Download or read book Brain Belief written by John J. McGraw and published by AEGIS PRESS. This book was released on 2004 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From its beginnings in prehistoric religion to its central importance in Western faith traditions, the soul has been a constant source of fascination and speculation. Brain & Belief seeks to understand mankind's obsession with life, death, and the afterlife. Exploring the latest insights from neuroscience, psychopharmacology, and existential psychology, McGraw exhaustively researches the various takes on the human soul and considers the meaning of the soul in a postmodern world. The ambitious scope of the book is balanced by a deeply personal voice whose sympathy for both science and religion is resonant.
Download or read book Life Death and Subjectivity written by Stan van Hooft and published by Rodopi. This book was released on 2004 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents an exploration of concepts central to health care practice. In exploring such concepts as Subjectivity, Life, Personhood, and Death in deep philosophical terms, the book aims to draw out the ethical demands that arise when we encounter these phenomena, and also the moral resources of health care workers for meeting those demands. The series Values in Bioethics makes available original philosophical books in all areas of bioethics, including medical and nursing ethics, health care ethics, research ethics, environmental ethics, and global bioethics.
Download or read book Voices of Illness Negotiating Meaning and Identity written by Peter Bray and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-03-27 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a scholarly collection of interdisciplinary perspectives and practices that examine the positive potential of attending to the voices and stories of those who live and work with illness in real world settings. Its international contributors offer case studies and research projects illustrating how illness can disrupt, highlight and transform themes in personal narratives, forcing the creation of new biographies. As exercises in narrative development and autonomy, the evolving content and expression of illness stories are crucial to our understanding of the lived experience of those confronting life changes. The international contributors to this volume demonstrate the importance of hearing, understanding and effectively liberating voices impacted by illness and change. Contributors include Tineke Abma, Peter Bray, Verusca Calabria, Agnes Elling, Deborah Freedman, Alexandra Fidyk, Justyna Jajszczok, Naomi Krüger, Annie McGregor, Pam Morrison, Miranda Quinney, Yomna Saber, Elena Sharratt, Victorria Simpson-Gervin, Hans T. Sternudd, Mirjam Stuij, Anja Tramper, Alison Ward and Jane Youell.
Download or read book Science on Stage written by Kirsten Shepherd-Barr and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-05 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Science on Stage is the first full-length study of the phenomenon of "science plays"--theatrical events that weave scientific content into the plot lines of the drama. The book investigates the tradition of science on the stage from the Renaissance to the present, focusing in particular on the current wave of science playwriting. Drawing on extensive interviews with playwrights and directors, Kirsten Shepherd-Barr discusses such works as Michael Frayn's Copenhagen and Tom Stoppard's Arcadia. She asks questions such as, What accounts for the surge of interest in putting science on the stage? What areas of science seem most popular with playwrights, and why? How has the tradition evolved throughout the centuries? What currents are defining it now? And what are some of the debates and controversies surrounding the use of science on stage? Organized by scientific themes, the book examines selected contemporary plays that represent a merging of theatrical form and scientific content--plays in which the science is literally enacted through the structure and performance of the play. Beginning with a discussion of Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, the book traces the history of how scientific ideas (quantum mechanics and fractals, for example) are dealt with in theatrical presentations. It discusses the relationship of science to society, the role of science in our lives, the complicated ethical considerations of science, and the accuracy of the portrayal of science in the dramatic context. The final chapter looks at some of the most recent and exciting developments in science playwriting that are taking the genre in innovative directions and challenging the audience's expectations of a science play. The book includes a comprehensive annotated list of four centuries of science plays, which will be useful for teachers, students, and general readers alike.
Download or read book The Anticipatory Corpse written by Jeffrey P. Bishop and published by University of Notre Dame Pess. This book was released on 2011-09-19 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this original and compelling book, Jeffrey P. Bishop, a philosopher, ethicist, and physician, argues that something has gone sadly amiss in the care of the dying by contemporary medicine and in our social and political views of death, as shaped by our scientific successes and ongoing debates about euthanasia and the “right to die”—or to live. The Anticipatory Corpse: Medicine, Power, and the Care of the Dying, informed by Foucault’s genealogy of medicine and power as well as by a thorough grasp of current medical practices and medical ethics, argues that a view of people as machines in motion—people as, in effect, temporarily animated corpses with interchangeable parts—has become epistemologically normative for medicine. The dead body is subtly anticipated in our practices of exercising control over the suffering person, whether through technological mastery in the intensive care unit or through the impersonal, quasi-scientific assessments of psychological and spiritual “medicine.” The result is a kind of nihilistic attitude toward the dying, and troubling contradictions and absurdities in our practices. Wide-ranging in its examples, from organ donation rules in the United States, to ICU medicine, to “spiritual surveys,” to presidential bioethics commissions attempting to define death, and to high-profile cases such as Terri Schiavo’s, The Anticipatory Corpse explores the historical, political, and philosophical underpinnings of our care of the dying and, finally, the possibilities of change. This book is a ground-breaking work in bioethics. It will provoke thought and argument for all those engaged in medicine, philosophy, theology, and health policy.
Download or read book Exploring Frontiers of the Mind Brain Relationship written by Alexander Moreira-Almeida and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-11-25 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The conscious mind defines human existence. Many consider the brain as a computer, and they attempt to explain consciousness as emerging at a critical, but unspecified, threshold level of complex computation among neurons. The brain-as-computer model, however, fails to account for phenomenal experience and portrays consciousness as an impotent, after-the-fact epiphenomenon lacking causal power. And the brain-as-computer concept precludes even the remotest possibility of spirituality. As described throughout the history of humankind, seemingly spiritual mental phenomena including transcendent states, near-death and out-of-body experiences, and past-life memories have in recent years been well documented and treated scientifically. In addition, the brain-as-computer approach has been challenged by advocates of quantum brain biology, who are possibly able to explain, scientifically, nonlocal, seemingly spiritual mental states. Exploring Frontiers of the Mind-Brain Relationship argues against the purely physical analysis of consciousness and for a balanced psychobiological approach. This thought-provoking volume bridges philosophy of mind with science of mind to look empirically at transcendent phenomena, such as mystic states, near-death experiences and past-life memories, that have confounded scientists for decades. Representing disciplines ranging from philosophy and history to neuroimaging and physics, and boasting a panel of expert scientists and physicians, including Andrew Newberg, Peter Fenwick, Stuart Hameroff, Mario Beauregard, Deepak Chopra, and Chris Clarke the book rigorously follows several lines of inquiry into mind-brain controversies, challenging readers to form their own conclusions—or reconsider previous ones. Key coverage includes: Objections to reductionistic materialism from the philosophical and the scientific tradition. Phenomena and the mind-brain problem. The neurobiological correlates of meditation and mindfulness. The quantum soul, a view from physics. Clinical implications of end-of-life experiences. Mediumistic experience and the mind-brain relationship. Exploring Frontiers of the Mind-Brain Relationship is essential reading for researchers and clinicians across many disciplines, including cognitive psychology, personality and social psychology, the neurosciences, neuropsychiatry, palliative care, philosophy, and quantum physics. “This book ... brings together some precious observations about the fundamental mystery of the nature of consciousness ... It raises many questions that serve to invite each of us to be more aware of the uncertainty of our preconceptions about consciousness ... This book on the frontiers of mind-body relationships is a scholarly embodiment of creative and open-minded science.” C. Robert Cloninger, MD Wallace Renard Professor of Psychiatry, Genetics, and Psychology, Washington University School of Medicine St. Louis MO
