Galen and the Rhetoric of Healing

by Mattern, Susan P.

• ISBN13: 9780801888359
• ISBN10: 0801888352
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-06-13
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

Galen is the most important physician of the Roman imperial era. Many of his theories and practices were the basis for medical knowledge for centuries after his death and some practices -- like checking a patient's pulse -- are still used today. He also left a vast corpus of writings which makes up a full one-eighth of all surviving ancient Greek literature. Through her readings of hundreds of Galen's case histories, Susan P. Mattern presents the first systematic investigation of Galen's clinical practice.Galen's patient narratives illuminate fascinating interplay among the craft of healing, social class, professional competition, ethnicity, and gender. Mattern describes the public, competitive, and masculine nature of medicine among the urban elite and analyzes the relationship between clinical practice and power in the Roman household. She also finds that although Galen is usually perceived as self-absorbed and self-promoting, his writings reveal him as sensitive to the patient's history, symptoms, perceptions, and even words.Examining his professional interactions in the context of the world in which he lived and practiced, Galen and the Rhetoric of Healing provides a fresh perspective on a foundational figure in medicine and valuable insight into how doctors thought about their patients and their practice in the ancient world.

Author Biography

Susan P. Mattern is an associate professor of history at the University of Georgia.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
The Stories in Context	p. 1
Society and Culture	p. 2
Galen's Life	p. 2
Diseases and Death in Rome	p. 4
Galen and Greek Culture	p. 7
Galen's Corpus	p. 11
Galen's Audience: "Friends and Companions"	p. 14
Professionalism and Social Status	p. 21
Narrative and Medicine	p. 27
Hippocratic Case Histories	p. 28
Case Histories after the Hippocratic Corpus	p. 31
Inscriptions and the Cult of Asclepius	p. 36
Written Tradition and Clinical Experience	p. 37
Case Histories in Galen's Work	p. 40
Memory and Autobiography	p. 43
Place and Time	p. 48
Context and Authenticity	p. 48
Place	p. 49
City	p. 49
Country	p. 53
Houses	p. 56
Time	p. 60
Chronology	p. 60
Medical Time	p. 62
Time and Narrative Structure	p. 65
The Contest: Rivals, Spectators, and Judges	p. 69
Agon	p. 69
Rivals	p. 72
Other Physicians	p. 72
Confrontation	p. 74
Demonstrating Superiority	p. 76
Audience	p. 80
Witness and Judge	p. 80
The Addressee	p. 83
Friends	p. 84
Rivals and Patients	p. 87
Family and Household	p. 88
Husbands, Fathers, and Masters	p. 90
Failure	p. 92
Case History and Healing Narrative	p. 95
The Patient	p. 98
Presenting the Patient	p. 99
Names and Terms	p. 99
Temperament and Constitution	p. 102
Age	p. 105
Sex: Female Patients	p. 112
Social Information	p. 115
Conclusion	p. 118
The Patient as Character	p. 119
The Patient's Perspective	p. 119
The Patient's Lifestyle	p. 126
Character and Emotion	p. 132
Conclusion	p. 136
Physician and Patient	p. 138
The Physician's Perspective: "I" and "We"	p. 138
Physician and Patient	p. 140
Intimacy	p. 140
Obedience	p. 145
Perceiving the Patient	p. 149
Fever	p. 155
Conclusion	p. 159
Works Cited from Galen's Corpus	p. 163
Table of Cases	p. 173
Notes	p. 203
Bibliography	p. 253
Index	p. 269
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