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PubMed2000

Intolerable human suffering and the role of the ancestor: literary criticism as a means of analysis.

Intolerable human suffering and the role of the ancestor: literary criticism as a means of analysis This essay explores the experience of intolerable human suffering in Toni Cade Bambara's novel, The Salt Eaters. The method of analysis is literary criticism, a technique that shares many of the same goals as other types of inquiry. It employs close reading to illuminate the novel's meaning(s), thereby revealing information about the nature of intolerable human suffering. Morrison's characteristics of black art is the literary and cultural framework that guides the analysis of Bambara's novel. The paradigm has broad application for nursing. The purpose of this analysis was to describe the role of the ancestral system as a predictor of the trajectory of suffering. The results extend Morrison's paradigm and her notion of ancestor to include traditions and other non-corporeal factors that are essential for well-being and survival. The protagonist in Bambara's novel, Velma Henry, is the patient and exemplar who does not succumb to intolerable suffering because of its cumulative weight, but because she has lost touch with the traditions of her people, an essential component of her ancestral system. The ancestral system is a rich and complex network of individuals, groups, customs and beliefs that are instructive, protective and benevolent. Ancestors are also timeless and provide wisdom, but when the ancestral system is weak or absent, the trajectory of suffering is not favourable. Nurses must learn to recognize intolerable human suffering, to identify the patient's ancestral system, and to work within that system to keep suffering patients from harm.

Black or African American↗
PubMed2003

Patient anxiety and modern elective surgery: a literature review.

Medical advances have led to a considerable rise in the level of elective surgery undertaken as day-case surgery and with minimal hospital stay. However, amid such advances, preoperative psychological care has remained relatively static. A considerable number of patients are very anxious prior to elective surgery and little formal care is undertaken to address this major issue. A review of the literature from 1990 to 2002 was therefore undertaken in order to assess the present level of knowledge and interventions concerning patient anxiety when undergoing modern, intermediate surgical intervention. Thirty-four studies embracing data from 3754 patients undergoing both inpatient and day-case procedures were reviewed. Three main themes emerged - causes of anxiety, clinical concerns and measurement, and anxiety management. Each theme is discussed alongside details extracted from the relevant studies. Finally, the main issues arising are summarized and future research challenges identified.

Anesthesia, General↗
PubMed1999

'A leg to stand on': an existential-phenomenological analysis.

The analysis of a paradigm-case (a person with an injured leg, an autobiographical history related by Dr Sacks) presented here is an illustration of how existential-phenomenological analysis can be done. The aim of existential-phenomenological research is to analyse and to describe some dimensions of being. The person with an injured leg appears 'to bescotomized'. Well then, 'being-scotomized' can be analysed and described as a particular mode of 'being', even as a particular mode of 'being-ill'. 'Being' has been studied (in the philosophical tradition of Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty and Sartre) as that existential movement that brings an individual, the 'self', towards the world, meanwhile 'affecting' the personal body, personal time and space, the objects in a person's life-world, the individual's life-world and, finally, coexistence. The study of 'being-ill' is the study of the particular way the self, the body, time and space, the objects, the life-world, and coexistence are affected when being-ill. 'Being-scotomized' may appear as affecting: (i) the self, isolating the subject and leading to a personal disintegration; (ii) the body to which he maintains an ambiguous relationship: being a body and having a body, and not having a part of the body any more; (iii) time and space being vanished with the vanished leg. The subject is 'at' a nowhereness and 'at' a motionless time; there is no meaningful future; (iv) the things in the person's life-world, to which it appears impossible to give the 'right' sense; (v) the life-world, revealing itself as a noland, characterized by silence and motionlessness; (vi) the others in this life-world that appears no-man's-land, uninhabitable nearly by definition. Coexistence reveals not to be possible.

Body Image↗
PubMed2004

Transplantation: fantasy, fiction and fact.

Today organ transplantation is considered a routine surgical procedure. The idea of transferring tissues from one person to another has been inspiring to the minds of artists depicting the Saints Cosmos and Damian and also writers such as Mary Shelley. Early attempts at tissue transplantation were unsuccessful but in the last 50 years medical research has brought it into reality. The present paper looks at the subject from the realms of fantasy through the works of fiction and finally into everyday fact.

Drama↗
PubMed1995

[Sense of smell].

About two million Americans suffer from anosmia. Most result from nasal obstruction, head injuries, and viral infections. Brain disorders like epileptic seizures, tumours, and dementia can distort can distort the sense of smell. Anosmia adversely affects patient well-being. Patients cannot detect spoiled food, gas leakage, or dangerous smoke. They are unable to distinguish flavour and smell the springtime or the ocean. Many products as soaps, cat litter, toilet paper, etc. are perfumed because consumers will more readily buy a product that smells nice than one that has no smell at all. Historically, the importance of odors was very different. The ancient Romans loved exotic aromas during their banquets and orgies. In the Middle Ages the church did not like fragrances. The French revolution of 1789 brought a revolution of deodorization to Europe. Today, fragrance companies' increasing sales are an indication of the power of odor.

Humans↗
PubMed1992

Skin for skin.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Humans↗
PubMed2001

About medicine and the arts. Charcot and French literature at the fin-de-siècle.

The relationship between medicine and the arts, literature in particular, has many aspects. One of the most obvious relations is the use of literature as a source for historical studies. Jean-Martin Charcot and his school often appear in French literature at the end of the 19th century. Several aspects will be highlighted in this study, including (1) the ideas about degenerative diseases in the work of Emile Zola, the main author of the naturalistic movement; (2) decadence and spiritism in two "transitional" novels by Joris Karl Huysmans, who, once supporter of the naturalistic movement, changed his ideas following observations of disease and cure that could not be explained in a scientific way. Charcot's work on hysteria and hypnosis, as well as Brown-Séquard's rejuvenation experiments with testicular extracts played an important role with this respect; (3) Charcot's relationship with the Daudets, in particular his treatment of Alphonse's tabes dorsalis and the ambivalent attitude of his son Léon Daudet towards Charcot; (4) the influence of the lectures at the Salpêtrière on the work of Guy de Maupassant, who attended the lessons in the mid-1880s. The reading of novels and biographies of these authors provides a part of the social context and the cultural atmosphere in Paris at the "fin-de-siècle" when Charcot and his school played an important role in medicine. Moreover, it shows the influence of medicine and science on society as recorded by writers.

France↗