Category: Reflection
Critical reflections on healing, identity, and resilience—insights that deepen understanding in medicine, culture, and human experience.
LATEST IN THIS CATEGORY
Two Long-Hidden Stories about Barriers to Health Care Surface and Still Relate
Two unknown stories from the past forewarn of problems in health care ahead.
Alphonse Daudet and Intractable Pain
Alphonse Daudet’s little book invites us to imagine ourselves living, at least for a little while, in the land of pain
Chasing a Disease that was Chasing Him: The Plague Years by Dr. Ross Slotten
A physician’s memoir tracing compassion, loss, resilience, and survival through the devastating early decades of the AIDS epidemic.
Children Who Remember Former Lives
An exploration of children reporting past-life memories, examining evidence, skepticism, and philosophical implications for consciousness and identity.
Craftivism is Activism
From AIDS quilts to protest knitting, craftivism transforms domestic creativity into engaging tools for social activism.
Eat Your Ice Cream
A pragmatic guide to longevity that favors balance, evidence, and meaningful human connection.
Stories of Illness, Stories of Loss
An essay linking Holocaust memory books to the art of medical history-taking and illness narratives.
Feeling Dementia from the Play, The Father
Florian Zeller’s The Father immerses audiences inside dementia, transforming theatrical disorientation into visceral understanding and empathy.
How Montaigne Profited from His Kidney Stones
Physical suffering becomes philosophical insight as illness transforms pain, fear, and mortality into unexpected benefit.
A Plague on Their House
How O’Farrell’s Hamnet Traces Plague’s Journey From Fleas to Family, Blending Science, History, Storytelling with Empathy
Learning Empathy through Chekhov
A psychiatrist-playwright shows how adapting classic drama for medical students cultivates empathy and reflective care practice.
The Word Is an Instrument of Healing
Language, ritual, and narrative serve as powerful healing tools, with context, beliefs, and social support enhancing health outcomes.
When the Literary Adds to the Historical
The 1918 flu pandemic’s history and literature together reveal its vast global impact and intimate human suffering, offering fuller insight than either alone.
Vaccination in Danger
Vaccine pioneer Stanley Plotkin reflects on the growing opposition to vaccination despite its proven, lifesaving impact worldwide.
Imagining Phantom Limb Pain
The “fragmentary novel” Flights, offers literary descriptions of phantom limb pain by imagining what a known amputee from the past may have gone through.
Forspoken – A Tale of Chronic Trauma
Forspoken blends role-playing, action, and open-world gameplay to tell a magical yet deeply human story about chronic trauma and healing.
