Doctors could learn from Shakespeare’s deep understanding of mind-body connection

BMJ-British Medical Journal ^ | November 23, 2011

[decimon]

Body-conscious Shakespeare: Sensory disturbances in troubled characters

Shakespeare was a master at portraying profound emotional upset in the physical symptoms of his characters, and many modern day doctors would do well to study the Bard to better understand the mind-body connection, concludes an analysis of his works, published in Medical Humanities.

Kenneth Heaton, a medical doctor and extensively published author on William Shakespeare's oeuvre, systematically analysed 42 of the author's major works and 46 of those of his contemporaries, looking for evidence of psychosomatic symptoms.

He focused on sensory symptoms other than those relating to sight, taste, the heart, and the gut.

He found that Shakespeare's portrayal of symptoms such as dizziness/faintness, and blunted or heightened sensitivity to touch and pain in characters expressing profound emotions was significantly more common than in works by other authors of the time.

Vertigo/giddiness/dizziness is expressed by five male characters in "Taming of the Shrew", "Romeo and Juliet", "Henry VI" part 1, "Cymbeline" and "Troilus and Cressida". The nearest approximation in contemporaries' works was one incident in John Marston's "The Malcontent".

[decimon]

Mind and bardy ping.

[aNYCguy]

Just FYI, this isn’t from the BMJ. FWIW.

[bunkerhill7]

``To beat or not to beat, that is the heart of the question.``

[decimon]

Just FYI, this isn’t from the BMJ. FWIW.

How do you know?

[aNYCguy]

Well, first of all, your link goes to an editorial from Eurekalert.org, not an article in the BMJ. In any case, at the end of the editorial's first paragraph: "...published in Medical Humanities." That's a journal by BMJ Group, but not the BMJ. The Eurekalert.org editorial's link to the BMJ is apparently a mistake or confusion, as the link actually goes to bma.org, the British Medical Association, an advocacy and lobbying group for doctors.

Whew!

[decimon]

That’s not an editorial but a press release. Do a web search on the title and you’ll find the very same release at sites other than Eurekalert.

[aNYCguy]

Ah, okay. Press release for Medical Humanities.

[GOP Poet]

Writers write and science catches up.

[TBP]

Very interesting.

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks decimon. There is thy gold, worse poison to men's souls, Doing more murders in this loathsome world, Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell. I sell thee poison; thou hast sold me none. Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.