Psychiatrists in the 19th century began attributing self-harm to a desire to manipulate others.
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Articles on Medical history
Displaying 41 - 51 of 51 articles
The lock hospitals inflicted incalculable traumas on Aboriginal people, wrenching them away from families and country.
Hundreds of Aboriginal people were incarcerated on Dorre and Bernier islands for “venereal disease” between 1908 and 1919. The lock hospitals were penal rather than therapeutic institutions.
The story of an amazing man you have probably never heard of.
New research that more isn’t better when it comes to chemotherapy mirrors the evolution of surgery approaches to breast cancer that, a few decades ago, were far more radical than now.
Surgical makeovers might seem a modern phenomenon but they have a long and disturbing history: from 16th century skin grafts done without anaesthesia to reductions of “primitive” large breasts.
Young women (and men) have been dramatically restricting their calorie intake for centuries, but not all the symptoms of modern anorexia have always been present.
While some ancient therapies proved effective enough that they are still used in some form today, on the whole they just aren’t as good as modern antimicrobials at treating infections.
Pain during labour and birth is a complex combination of physical and psychological factors.
Thalidomide was developed in an era of widespread enthusiasm – but little critical attention – for pharmaceutical therapies.
Thalidomide caused thousands of spontaneous abortions and left more than 10,000 children severely disabled. What guarantee is there that the same thing can’t occur again today?
Top contributors
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Lecturer, Pharmacology, Women's Health, School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Western Australia
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Professor Emerita, Classical Studies, The Open University
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Senior Lecturer in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, King's College London
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Melissa Sweet is a Friend of The Conversation.
Independent journalist and health writer; Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney; Founder of Croakey.org. PhD candidate, University of Canberra
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Professor of Communication and Media Studies, Director, News and Media Research Centre, University of Canberra
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Senior Lecturer, Centre for Nursing and Midwifery Research, James Cook University
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Research Fellow, University of Sydney
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Chancellor's Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, Indiana University
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Professor of Midwifery, Associate Dean Research and HDR, Midwifery Discipline Leader, Western Sydney University
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Senior Lecturer in 19th and 20th-century North American History, University of Liverpool
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Associate Professor of History, University of Wollongong
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Director, Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, Smithsonian Institution
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Professor of Philosophy of Science, Durham University
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Senior Lecturer in Australian History, Flinders University
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Affiliate, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University
