"I am not a “pain expert� in the traditional sense. I have never worked in a pain clinic and have had limited experience in pain management. Instead, "I am not a “pain expert� in the traditional sense. I have never worked in a pain clinic and have had limited experience in pain management. Instead, I came to appreciate the subtleties of pain by treating those who do not feel it."
Dr. Brand was a general surgeon who went to India and learnt hand surgery skills on Tendon transfer techniques on cadavers in order to treat paralysed thumb and claw-hand syndrome in leprosy patients who do not feel pain. A former casualty surgeon in the London Blitz, he was the first physician to suggest that leprosy is a disease of the nerves, not of the tissue: it is the loss of the sensation of pain which makes patients susceptible to injury and leads to rotting tissue, especially in the extremities.
"A missionary called Ruth Thomas set up a physiotherapy area in our clinic, equipping it with facilities for hot paraffin treatment and electrical stimulation of muscles. She was a pioneer, one of the first Physiotherapists in the world to work with leprosy patients. [...]But our leprosy patients, without a pain reflex, had no built-in safeguards for repair and healing. We had to impose them from outside. Most physiotherapists in hand surgery have to coax their recuperating patients to move their fingers a little more each day. We fought the opposite problem of preventing them from moving their fingers too much too soon. All day long I heard the words “Gently now� and “Just a little� from Ruth Thomas."
Brand takes us through quite a bit of his life and his medical experience with (a tad outdated) Hand Surgery/Therapy and leprosy - constantly advocating for the Mind - he details on many of his cases and surgeries and all the madness that comes with educating the patient, it's not a difficult read -but specific - and one of the places to read the story of tendons (and other body parts) injured by leprosy. With a pinch of symbolic tilting at windmills. But the doctor does write from some position of empathy towards his patients, so there's that.
"The mind, not the cells of the injured hand, will determine the final extent of rehabilitation, because without strong motivation the patient simply will not endure the disciplines of recovery. After surgery, a hand patient has the overpowering sensation “My hand hurts.� But as we have seen, that sensation is a clever invention of the mind: what really hurts is the felt image of the hand stored away in the spinal cord and brain. "
"No matter how strongly I warned them in advance, they seemed disappointed to find that our surgeries did not restore sensation. Yes, they could now curl their fingers around a gummy ball of rice, but the rice felt neutral, the same as wood or grass or velvet. They gained the ability to shake hands, but could not feel the warmth and texture and firmness of the hand they were shaking. I had to teach them not to grasp someone else’s hand too tightly; they could not tell when they were hurting the other person. For them, touch had lost all meaning. And so had pain."
It is pertinent of Brand to use that Paul Valery quote: "at the end of the mind, the body -but at the end of the body, the mind.�...more
A thought-provoking treatise on Pain - on physical pain through the spectrum of vocabulary, war, medicine, torture, literature.
I only give this 4 starA thought-provoking treatise on Pain - on physical pain through the spectrum of vocabulary, war, medicine, torture, literature.
I only give this 4 stars as it went forward with this notion that Virginia Woolf made fashionable in On Being Ill by complaining there isn't much written on Illness and Pain but here we must simply agree to disagree as I too brandish The Magic Mountain's Settembrini to remind us there is virtually no piece of literature that is not about suffering, indeed.
I think of Pain in the very traditional written sense and I think of Alphonse Daudet's In the Land of Pain, a direct account of ideas that are echoed in this book: physical pain does not simply resist language but actively destroys it, bringing about an immediate reversion to a state anterior to language, before language is even learnt.
Pain comes into our midst as at once that which cannot be denied and that which cannot be confirmed. Joris-Karl Huysmans writes of "the useless, unjust, incomprehensible, inept abomination that is physical pain."
The effort to understand, already very old, will always be ongoing. Like the work of making, it keeps itself going. The carpenter encourages the goldsmith, and he who wields the hammer cheers him who strikes the anvil, saying of the welding, “It is good.� - can't take credit, this came straight from Heaven by fax - Isaiah 41:7.
"I have given a name to my pain and call it 'dog,' " announces Nietzsche in The Joyous Science in a brilliantly magisterial pretence of having at last gained the upper hand; "It is just as faithful, just as obtrusive and shameless, just as entertaining, just as clever as any other dog—and I can scold it and vent my bad mood on it, as others do with their dogs, servants, and wives." That's right folks, in the isolation of pain, even the most uncompromising advocate of individualism might suddenly prefer a realm populated by companions, however imaginary and safely subordinate.
To return to the point and the general question about the relation between expressing pain and eliminating pain through the context of verbalization; on a personal note, I remind the reader that Pain and Language are created in and by the same organ, thus I have found the magic word (view spoiler)[Fuck! (hide spoiler)] to be the greatest of verbal palliatives. But, as all words of power, it only works if spoken with conviction - and on principle - as an act of poetic faith (in what, you ask? to each his own. ) - as Ethic, dogma and creed....more
Could have been great: it's supposed to be about how we construct reality by the process of knowing: the act of Knowing in itself and how it gives forCould have been great: it's supposed to be about how we construct reality by the process of knowing: the act of Knowing in itself and how it gives form to language, science, literature, art. This concept of Knowing leads to a concern with how we impart knowledge, how we lead the learner to construct reality on their own terms.
This all sounds very complex and erudite AF, but....Jerome likes to name drop famous people/places, this makes it all too much of a pretentious read to take serious, especially after the following:
"Since childhood I have been enchanted by the symbolism of right hands, one a doer, the other the dreamer."
(personal confusion mode on but let us try hard not to digress)
... Jerome is fascinated by right hands therefore claims he has written words on the left hand. Only to end up not quite discussing any of them. I can't take this seriously....more
I always get a kick out of reading these outdated treatises, translated in English in 1734, of interest here on the History of the Hand, Andry arguingI always get a kick out of reading these outdated treatises, translated in English in 1734, of interest here on the History of the Hand, Andry arguing hands were important in the eighteenth century as ‘principle organs of touch�, thus they undergo his highest scrutiny: hands should be ‘well-shaped, delicate, pretty long and not square� unlike ugly hands that looked like ‘shoulders of mutton on account of their breadth and length�.
The hand should be covered with a ‘fine smooth skin and the fingers should have an Air of Freedom and Mobility�, as per the section ‘What shape the Arms, Hands, Fingers and Nails ought to have to appear handsome�.
All this was important, argued Andry. A rough, calloused Hand attached to a lady at a society ball would never be asked for a dance.
In London, hand and nail care specialists began advertising their services from around 1750. One such J. Frankel from Germany was advertising himself as being ‘Famous for cutting nails without the least pain or drawing blood�....more
This is an advanced study of macrocosm and microcosm, discussing many topics regarded from a Rosicrucian view: the world’s creation, on occult mathemaThis is an advanced study of macrocosm and microcosm, discussing many topics regarded from a Rosicrucian view: the world’s creation, on occult mathematics, harmonics and music theory, theories of vision and optics, and theory of fortification and military strategy. Notably, Fludd describes the very first experiments on gas and states that “air nourishes fire and is consumed.�
Have had the opportunity to peruse a lovely edition at A LOCATION IN LONDON I AM NOT ALLOWED TO MENTION EVEN THOUGH I ALREADY DID, of special interest the research on the Golden Ratio through a Hand see ....more
This was an easy read, can't say that I've learnt more than 2 interesting bits in each chapter, title is a tad misleading as well, this is more about This was an easy read, can't say that I've learnt more than 2 interesting bits in each chapter, title is a tad misleading as well, this is more about her experience as a forensic anthropologist and there's a bit too much babble about some personal bureaucratic nightmares from work, I would have preferred to read her thoughts on the Chinese baby with 31 digits, since she says she loves hands so much....more
Sabazios is the horseman and sky father god of the Phrygians and Thracians.
The raised hand gestures of the cult (see ) were adopted by alSabazios is the horseman and sky father god of the Phrygians and Thracians.
The raised hand gestures of the cult (see ) were adopted by all future orators by putting forth their hands during a particularly solemn utterance. These gestures are typical not only of the representations of the Sabazios but for some of the Thracian Horseman (predating St. George slaying the dragon, see ) as well, the raised gestures indicating the Thracian's spear.
A simple glance at the Hand (see another ) and it becomes more than evident that this, in essence, is the same as the divine gesture of benediction, protection, conjuration. Stripped of all symbols typical for this kind of relic, the Hands of Sabazios have a finger formation that had surely been appropriated by the benedictio latina (see ), a starting point in the development of iconography.
One could also see the The Hands of Sabazios as antique representations of , a hand condition that has historical been thought to be a Viking issue.
Further readings on Dupuytren’s contractures .
Further readings on the Sabazios cult .
Surviving Hand of Sabazios relic from Pompeii, currently at The Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum .
Surviving Hand of Sabazios from the 2d century, found at Tournai on the Belgian-French border, currently at the British Museum .
Surviving Hand Of Sabazios from the 3d century, currently at The Walters Art Museum, linking it to the cult of Bacchus ....more
My confusion: Chris starts the Introduction by complaining about Left Hand, Right Hand!, the disappointment that it wasn't some comprehensive book on My confusion: Chris starts the Introduction by complaining about Left Hand, Right Hand!, the disappointment that it wasn't some comprehensive book on Handedness which gave him the urge to put his big boy pants on and write the darn thing himself.
Fair, but Fail.
Not only does he fail, but funnily enough, he goes about it in the same way he himself complains of Osbert Sitwell. What is this book about? Handedness? Body symmetry? The muppets? (no joke on that last one)
More confusion: in Chapter 1, he mentions Susan Wright, one of the first people who have been diagnosed with Situs inversus (a rare genetic condition in which the organs in the chest and abdomen are reversed), he quotes from her medical files of 1836:
"'her habits were extremely temperate, although she had been on a few occasions observed in a state of inebriation'. She never married, 'and the appearances after death shewed that she had died a maiden, as the hymen still remained...'."
Call me Old, Prudish and Confused but what the fuck does her hymen have anything to do with Handedness?
If the purpose of this unnecessarily long book is to cast some light on the notion of Handedness (as per the author himself in the Introduction) then why are we even mentioning this individual's hymen? I do expect to see such observations in medical files of 1836 but perhaps we could have edited that part out in the year of the lord 2002 when this book was published?
No, we could not. Nor could we edit out the ridiculous dumping of facts, names and dates that no one will ever remember as it's all part of a 5 page random rant before the purpose of the chapter can begin. And why? So Chris can show off his "diligent" research skills?
He isn't even as good as he thinks, since he does not mention the Phrygian and Thracian followers of Sabazios (see ) who used a Hand as their god's symbol which was later stolen, appropriated and modified to suit Christianity.
In Left Hand, Right Hand! Osbert Sitwell is trying to shed some light onto the evolution of Handedness in humans from the year of his lord 1943. It's nothing special but he succeeds, in half length of this book, without mentioning hymens from 1836.
I go back to the original question: what is this book about? I don't think even Chris himself truly knows, in his true heart of hearts that is beating unsymmetrically in his body. ...more
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