Incurable and Intolerable: Chronic Disease and Slow Death in Nineteenth-Century France

by Jason Szabo

Overview

Terminal illness and the pain and anguish it brings are experiences that have touched millions of people in the past and continue to shape our experience of the present. Hospital machines that artificially support life and monitor vital signs beg the question: Is there not anything that medical science can offer as solace?

Incurable and Intolerable looks at the history of incurable illness from a variety of perspectives, including those of doctors, patients, families, religious counsel, and policy makers. This compellingly documented and well-written history illuminates the physical, emotional, social, and existential consequences of chronic disease and terminal illness, and offers an original look at the world of palliative medicine, politics, religion, and charity. Revealing the ways in which history can shed new light on contemporary thinking, Jason Szabo encourages a more careful scrutiny of today's attitudes, policies, and practices surrounding "imminent death" and its effects on society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813545455
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	05/08/2009
Pages:	310
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

JASON SZABO is a medical doctor and historian involved in AIDS care and clinical research at MontrTal General Hospital. He has pursued postgraduate studies in history at McGill University and a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
"What Are His Chances, Doctor?" The Semantics of Incurability in the Nineteenth Century
Reinventing Hope in the Late Nineteenth Century
"I Told You So"
Death, Decay, and the Genesis of Shame
Medical Attitudes toward the Care of Incurables
Medical Strategies, Social Conventions, and Palliative Medicine
Ecce Homo
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The Fate of the Incurably Ill between the Two Revolutions, 1789-1848
Caught between Initiative and Inertia
Conclusion
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

In this original and engaging book, Jason Szabo explores a historical topic with great contemporary relevance—the encounter of physicians, patients, andsocial institutions with chronic and incurable disease.

Institute of the History of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University - Harry M. Marks