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Medical fiction

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Medical fiction is fiction whose events center upon a hospital, an ambulance staff, or any medical environment. It is highly prevalent on television, especially as medical dramas, as well as in novels.

The depiction of medical institutions and their staff has been considered important both for the influence it has on the perception of their real counterparts, and the role it can play in medical education.[1][2][3] Through their personal or collective experiences with specific diseases, medical institutions, and health professionals, the audience can relate to the situations depicted in medical fiction, contributing to the success of the genre. This familiarity with the subject matter requires a degree of realism in order "to avoid misinterpretations or false ideas about the medical institutional or professional practice".[1][4]

Medical fiction also allows "the illustration and dicussion of ethical dilemmas that are frequently not raised for reasons of discretion, embarrassment, or fear of retribution" in the scientific community.[5]

An example of medical fiction, is the science fiction television episode "Ethics" in Star Trek: The Next Generation; one of the characters has his spinal cord replaced on a space station with a new one.[6] The episode was broadcast in 1991 and also explored medical ethics.[6]

In another case, aphasia mentioned in the television episode "Babel" of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, is a real life disorder of disorder, "inability to understand or use written or spoken words."[7][8] The condition is caused by a brain injury such as from a stroke, tumor, or and infection.[7] In the television episode, the aphasia is caused by a virus.[8]

The Babyland General Hospital is a different type of fiction in the form of an actual building, where the procedure of birth and adoption is played out with Cabbage Patch Kids dolls in a converted former hospital.[9][10][11]

Subgenres

  • Romance novels have an independent subcategory in medicine, medical romance, with its own settings and characters.[12]
  • Doctor novel[12]
  • Medical crime or conspiracy
  • Medical research fiction[12]
  • Medical thriller
  • Medical comedy
  • Psychiatry in fiction[13][14]
  • Science Fiction[6]

Medical research fiction

Medical research also features frequently in fiction.[12] In contrast to medical treatment it is depicted in an ambivalent or negative way in many cases. Often associated with future developments, testing of ethical boundaries, especially with regard to experimentation on living subjects, is a common topic and gives expression to "deep-seated fears and expectations connected to our own lives".[15] Notable examples are the mysterious Dharma Initiative from the TV series Lost, which follows a nefarious plan to influence humanity and employs characters of the mad scientist type,[16] and Project Cadmus from DC Comics, a shady agency conducting genetic experiments disregarding any ethical boundaries.[17] On the contrary S.T.A.R. Labs, also from DC Comics, is a research organization providing medical assistance to the heroes of the stories. So it is depicted in a generally positive light, but that presentation is foiled by a number of individual members conducting unethical experiments.[18]

Psychiatry in fiction

Settings treating mental health issues are frequently portrayed negatively in fiction.[19][20] In fiction depicting mental health institutions, like the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, revolt of the characters against control exercised by the institution is a common theme.[21] Another notable example is the Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane in Batman comics: Hearkening back to the works of H. P. Lovecraft, it incorporates the "willful misremembering of historical madhouse regimes" into a contemporary setting, outwardly symbolized by a gothic-style building. It is a problematic depiction of mental illness as it both "trivializes the experience of going “mad”" and "demonstrates little interest in the actual workings of such institutions".[22][20]

See also

Further reading

  • Surawicz, Borys; Jacobson, Beverly (2009). Doctors in Fiction: Lessons from Literature. Radcliffe Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84619-328-6.

References

  1. ^ a b Comelles, Josep M.; Brigidi, Serena (2014). "Fictional encounters and real engagements: the representation of medical practice and institutions in Medical TV shows". Actes d'història de la ciència i de la tècnica. 7: 17–34. doi:10.2436/20.2006.01.182. Retrieved January 6, 2022.
  2. ^ Stinson, Mary Elizabeth; Heischmidt, Kenneth (2012). "Patients' perceptions of physicians: a pilot study of the influence of prime-time fictional medical shows". Health marketing quarterly. 29: 66–81. doi:10.1080/07359683.2012.652579.
  3. ^ Hoffman, Beth L.; Hoffman, Robert; Wessel, Charles B.; Shensa, Ariel; Wood, Michelle S.; Primack, Brian A. (2018). "Use of fictional medical television in health sciences education: a systematic review". Advances in Health Sciences Education. 23: 201–216. doi:10.1007/s10459-017-9754-5.
  4. ^ Collee, John (April 10, 1999). "Medical fiction: Should be accurate, but need not be didactic". British Medical Journal. 318: 955–956. doi:10.1136/bmj.318.7189.955.
  5. ^ Djerassi, Carl (June 11, 1998). "Ethical discourse by science-in-fiction" (PDF). Commentary. Nature. 393: 511. Retrieved January 17, 2022.
  6. ^ a b c Nemecek, Larry (2012-09-25). The Next Generation Companion: Star Trek The Next Generation. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4711-0679-8.
  7. ^ a b Aphasia. National Institutes of Health. 1983.
  8. ^ a b Ayers, Jeff (2006-12-29). Voyages of Imagination: The Star Trek Fiction Companion. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4165-2548-6.
  9. ^ "Cleveland's Cabbage Patch Kids turn 25". AccessNorthGA.com. 2008-09-07. Retrieved January 31, 2022.
  10. ^ Williams, Joy (2001). "The Case Against Babies". In Ratner, Rochelle (ed.). Bearing Life: Women's Writings on Childlessness. Feminist Press. pp. 78–79. ISBN 1-55861-275-0.
  11. ^ Vollmer, Matthew (2014). "This World Is Not Your Home". Ploughshares. 40 (4): 127–140.
  12. ^ a b c d Scott, Philipp A. (1992) The medical research novel in English and German, 1900-1950. Popular Press, ISBN 0-87972-552-4
  13. ^ Surawicz, Borys; Jacobson, Beverly (2009). "Novel Psychiatrists". Doctors in Fiction: Lessons from Literature. Radcliffe Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84619-328-6.
  14. ^ Brandell, Jerrold R., ed. (2004). Celluloid Couches, Cinematic Clients: Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy in the Movies. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-6081-9.
  15. ^ Weingart, Peter; Muhl, Claudia; Pansegrau, Petra (July 1, 2003). "Of Power Maniacs and Unethical Geniuses: Science and Scientists in Fiction Film". Public Understanding of Science. 13 (3): 279–287. doi:10.1177/0963662503123006.
  16. ^ Larsen, Kristine (2011). "Frankenstein's Legacy: The Mad Scientist Remade". In Heit, Jamey (ed.). Vader, Voldemort and Other Villains: Essays on Evil in Popular Media. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. pp. 48–53. ISBN 978-0-7864-5845-5.
  17. ^ Dyce, Andrew. "Supergirl: Project Cadmus Mysteries Explained". ScreenRant. Retrieved January 24, 2022. Over the years, the group became officially known as Project Cadmus, and made genetic research, hybridization, and exploration their specialty.
  18. ^ Dougall, Alastair; Ridout, Cefn, eds. (2021). The DC Comics Encyclopedia. Penguin Random House. p. 265. ISBN 978-0-24143-953-1.
  19. ^ Dudley, Michael (1994). "Images of psychiatry in recent Australian and New Zealand fiction". Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. 28 (4): 574–590. doi:10.1080/00048679409080781. Retrieved February 4, 2022.
  20. ^ a b Ellis, Jason W. (2020). "Foreword". In Packer, Sharon; Fredrick, Daniel R. (eds.). Welcome to Arkham Asylum: Essays on Psychiatry and the Gotham City Institution. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. p. 1. ISBN 978-1-4766-7098-0.
  21. ^ Pheasant-Kelly, Frances (2013). "Introduction: Institutions, Abjection and Subjectivity". Abject Spaces in American Cinema. Oxford: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84885-597-7.
  22. ^ Noad, Benjamin (2021). ""His Madness held no affinity": Reimagining Arkham Asylum". Studies in Gothic Fiction. 7: 41–50. doi:10.18573/sgf.51. Retrieved February 4, 2022.
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