Mending Bodies, Saving Souls: A History of Hospitals [Hardcover]
Author: Guenter B. Risse | Language: English | ISBN: 0195055233 | Format: PDF, EPUB
Mending Bodies, Saving Souls: A History of Hospitals
Direct download links available Mending Bodies, Saving Souls: A History of Hospitals for everyone book with Mediafire Link Download Link
Direct download links available Mending Bodies, Saving Souls: A History of Hospitals for everyone book with Mediafire Link Download Link
By chronicling the transformations of hospitals from houses of mercy to tools of confinement, from dwellings of rehabilitation to spaces for clinical teaching and research, from rooms for birthing and dying to institutions of science and technology, this book provides a historical approach to understanding of today's hospitals. The story is told in a dozen episodes which illustrate hospitals in particular times and places, covering important themes and developments in the history of medicine and therapeutics, from ancient Greece to the era of AIDS. This book furnishes a unique insight into the world of meanings and emotions associated with hospital life and patienthood by including narratives by both patients and care givers. By conceiving of hospitals as houses of order capable of taming the chaos associated with suffering, illness, and death, we can better understand the significance of their ritualized routines and rules. From their beginnings, hospitals were places of spiritual and physical recovery. They should continue to respond to all human needs. As traditional testimonials to human empathy and benevolence, hospitals must endure as spaces of healing.
Books with free ebook downloads available Mending Bodies, Saving Souls: A History of Hospitals [Hardcover] - Hardcover: 716 pages
- Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1 edition (April 15, 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0195055233
- ISBN-13: 978-0195055238
- Product Dimensions: 1.7 x 6.6 x 9.4 inches
- Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #666,714 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Hospitalitas, the Latin root for our word hospital, implies a relationship, a sharing between the visitor and caregiver. In his new book, Mending Bodies, Saving Souls, medically trained historian Guenter B. Risse traces the evolution of hospitals from their early mission as humble houses of mercy to the role of some today as arenas of nearly miraculous technical feats. Throughout the book Risse suggests that today's emphasis on diagnostic techniques and surgical specialties often overshadows and even undermines the capacity for compassionate caregiving. Risse, MD, PhD, is professor and chair of history of health sciences at the University of California San Francisco. He was trained as a medical doctor in Peronist Argentina and earned a doctorate in history at the University of Chicago. He brings both spheres of knowledge to his ambitious project. The chapters provide a series of portraits at the threshold of different medical milestones - the discovery of the stethoscope and its role in diagnosing tuberculosis; the emergence of autopsies to help pinpoint causes of disease and bring the possibility of preventing them; the first amputation under general anesthesia; the early use of antisepsis at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh; the modern development of organ transplant surgery and post-operative care; and the very real drama played out on the first AIDS ward in the early 1980s. After sketching their origins in Byzantium, Risse portrays hospitals in the Middle Ages as houses of refuge and dying, where moral and spiritual concerns prevailed and where caregivers were expected to fast and do penance. The house of mercy gave way during the Renaissance to the house of rehabilitation, borne by the conviction that the sick or wounded might be healed, not merely cared for.
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