The Clinic & The Person
The Clinic and The Person is a podcast developed to summon or quicken the attention of health care professionals, their educators, researchers and others to the interests and plights of people with specific health problems aided through knowledge and perspectives the humanities provide. We are guided by how physician-writer Iona Heath sees the arts adding a view to biomedicine “that falls from a slightly different direction revealing subtly different detail” and how that view applies to particular health care situations. Our aim is to surface these views, and our desire is to present them in ways that encourage and enable health care professionals to fully engage, to consider all sources, not just biomedical, in their roles helping people with their particular health problems.
“The Clinic” represents all that Biomedicine brings to bear on disease processes and treatment protocols, and “The Person,” represents all that people experience from health problems. Our episodes draw from works in the humanities—any genre—that relate directly to how people are affected by specific clinical events such as migraine headaches, epileptic seizures, and dementia, and by specific health care situations such as restricted access to care and gut-wrenching, life and death choices. We analyze and interpret featured works and provide thoughts on how they apply in patient care and support; health professions education; clinical and population research; health care policy; and social and cultural influences and reactions.
The Clinic & The Person
“I’m Filled with Desire”: Eros & Illness with David B. Morris
People can have certain desires stemming from their illnesses, for the arts, health, companionship, serenity, and meaning among other possibilities. The scholar, writer, and teacher David B. Morris considers these desires a form of eros that should be taken into account as a part of what people go through with their illnesses and what could potentially help them. We speak with David Morris about the relationship between eros and illness, and evaluate it using examples from art, literature, and theater. We muse about possible applications.
Primary Source Citation
Morris D. Eros and Illness. Cambridge MA; Harvard University Press, 2017
Links
Russell Teagarden’s relevant blog pieces:
- David Morris’ book, Eros and Illness
- Anatole Broyard’s book, Intoxicated by My Illness
- The play, Farinelli and the King
- Montaigne’s essays about his kidney stones
Modigliani’s reclining nude series:
- Reclining Nude, 1917
- Reclining Nude (Nu Couché) 1917–1918
- Reclining Nude (Le Grand Nu) 1919
- Nude on a Blue Cushion 1917
David Morris’ CV
Thanks to David Morris for coming on this episode and providing his thinking on the role of eros in illness.
Please send us comments, recommendations, and questions to this text link, or email to: russell.teagarden@theclinicandtheperson.com.
Thanks for listening, and please subscribe to The Clinic & The Person wherever you get your podcasts, or visit our website.
Executive producer: Anne Bentley
