Medicine Archives - Public Seminar

Literature

Libertie

In Brooklyn in 1860, a daughter watches her mother bring a patient back from the dead, in this excerpt from Kaitlyn Greenidge’s second novel

December 15, 2021 • by Kaitlyn Greenidge

I saw my mother raise a man from the dead. “It still didn’t help him much, my love,” she told me. But I saw her do it all the same. That’s how I knew she was magic....

Activism

“Brother Doc,” a Co-Conspirator for Justice

For a physician who supported armed struggle in the 1970s and 1980s, a commitment to radical anti-racism was everything

July 30, 2020 • by Susan M. Reverby

But what kind of action? There have always been Americans who could imagine a world of racial equality and justice, and who worked in cross-racial alliances to make it happen, not just -- as we do today -- at a street protest, or by issuing heartfelt statements of support, or ...

“Brother Doc,” a Co-Conspirator for Justice

Public Health

The Hidden Structural Racism in the American Response to Public Health Emergencies

Facing a disproportionate death rate among Black people from COVID-19, President Trump shrugs: “What, me, worry?”

July 23, 2020 • by R. Drew Smith

When faced with emerging epidemics related to HIV/AIDS in the 1970s, to crack cocaine in the 1980s, to Ebola in 2014 and 2018, the U.S. government was slow to intervene on behalf of homosexual populations, or urban poor populations, or African populations, who respectively were most-affected by those public health ...

The Hidden Structural Racism in the American Response to Public Health Emergencies

Feature

Why Do We Still Believe in Homeopathy?

Two parts volatility, one part mysticism

January 30, 2018 • by Derek Beres

The alternative medicine industry is booming thanks to a growing mistrust of the health care industry. Profits have dominated people for decades in “Big Pharma.” While research costs are exorbitant, executive compensation is excessive. Appeasing a board of shareholders should not take precedence over human suffering. Patients feel powerless against market forces. ...

Uncategorized

Challenging the Status Quo on Therapy’s Place in Schizophrenia Treatment

A discussion of recent developments

December 17, 2015 • by J.D. Finkelstein

Historic wisdom has held that high doses of antipsychotic medications are the most effective treatment for schizophrenia -- but that wisdom has been challenged by a new study reported in an article in ...

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Reviews

On Psychiatric Meds and Forgetting the Person

December 16, 2015 • by Leon Hoffman

In Shrinks: The Untold Story of Psychiatry, Jeffrey A. Lieberman, Lawrence C. Kolb Professor and chair of psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and former president of the American Psychiatric Association, states that “psychiatry’s dramatic transformation from a profession of shrinks to a profession of pill-pushers came through sheer ...

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