Posts Tagged ‘history of medicine’
XYY Men
Geneticists have long argued about the effects of having an extra male chromosome, a condition found in 1 of 1,000 men A battered paperback entitled The XYY Man, by Kenneth Royce, leans…
Read MoreA set of dusty boxes: The arresting origins of The Nazi and the Psychiatrist
My book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist has just been published. It had strange beginnings. When one dead man passes you a tip about another, you pay attention. Years ago, while researching…
Read MorePsychotic visitors to the White House; an actor who specialized in playing Hitler
I’ve neglected to post news of two guest contributions I’ve recently made to the Wonders & Marvels history blog. One is about the history of the study of psychotic visitors to…
Read MoreMy forthcoming book “The Nazi and the Psychiatrist” is optioned to Mythology Entertainment
I’m happy to announce that Mythology Entertainment — the production and writing talent behind such films as Shutter Island, Zodiac, The Amazing Spiderman and the upcoming White House Down — has optioned stage and…
Read MoreTiticut Follies: A Notorious Documentary
Several years ago I finally got the chance to watch a documentary that had been in my thoughts for a long time. It was Titicut Follies, which the renowned filmmaker Frederick…
Read MoreLou Gehrig, ALS, and the Patient Records Controversy
I recently wrote here on my thoughts about waiving considerations of privacy for medical patients who are long deceased and revealing their names and opening their medical records to journalists and the…
Read MoreA Murderer Trapped by Truth Serum
I recently wrote a post in the Wonders & Marvels blog about the history of truth serum. I didn’t have space in that post to mention an interesting article from the February 1960 issue…
Read MoreThere’s Gold in That Medicine
Gold has real medicinal value. It is used in implanted devices like pacemakers, and of course in dental work. Some people believe a controversial liquid suspension called colloidal gold may have…
Read MoreResuscitation for the Masses: How the Invention of CPR Shifted the Line between Life and Death
In 1960, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a manuscript credited with saving more lives than any other medical article of the previous hundred years.CPR training using a life-saving mannequin…
Read MoreAn Interview with a Stage Hypnotist
Last month, I posted the first in a series of short essays adapted from an article on hypnotists and hypnotism that I wrote for (but was never published in) Harper’s magazine several years ago.…
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