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A Doctor's Dictionary: Writings on Culture and Medicine

A Doctor's Dictionary: Writings on Culture and Medicine

by IainBamforth (Author)

  • Used

    Paperback 2015

    $5.83
Synopsis

In this pithy abecedarium, doctor and poet Iain Bamforth takes a close look at the conflict of values embodied in what we call medicine - never entirely a science and no longer quite the art it used to be. Bamforth brings his wide experience of medicine around the world, from the high-tech American Hospital of Paris to the community health centres of Papua, together with his engaging interest in the stranger manifestations of medical matters in relation to art, literature and culture - such as the mysterious 'Stendhal's syndrome', which caused 106 tourists in Florence to be hospitalised due to an overload of sublime Renaissance art.

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Quantity

2 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 328
 Edition: 1
 Publisher: Lives and Letters
Published: 27 Aug 2015
ISBN 10: 1784100560
ISBN 13: 9781784100568

Media Reviews
Bamforth's work is rich in perceptual acquaintance, making it not only intelligent but also extremely sensual. To read him makes the patterns of our minds richer. --Guardian
This collection is a joy to read, full of so much nuance, and persuasive language, a permanent wistfulness that never strays into the twee and the constant sense of travel, of movement and growth. --Matt Macdonald, Scottish Review of Books, on The Crossing Fee
I like his rigour and his epigrammatic flair . . . he is original despite himself. --Robert Nye, Scotsman
Author Bio
Iain Bamforth grew up in Glasgow and graduated from its medical school. He has pursued a peripatetic career as a hospital doctor, general practitioner, translator, lecturer in comparative literature, and latterly public health consultant in several developing countries, principally in Asia. His four books of poetry were joined by a fifth, The Crossing Fee, in 2013. His prose includes The Body in the Library (Verso, 2003), an account of modern medicine as told through literature; and The Good European (Carcanet, 2006), a collection of writings on ideas and literature in European history. He is currently working on a collection of aphoristic, fantastic and philosophical stories about medicine conjointly with a book of impressions of Wallacea - the biogeographical name for the various archipelagos between Asia and Australia. Several of his wide-ranging essays and reviews can be read on his website.