The posts in What These Works Say comprise reviews and analyses of works from the Humanities selected for their focus on illness experiences beyond what biomedical sources typically provide. The works selected address both the experience of illness diseases and disorders cause (e.g., pain, disability, disorientation), and related challenges (e.g., health care access, psychological manifestations, relationship disruptions). The posts consist of three sections: 1) a brief take on the key perspectives the work offers about disease and illness (According to the Arts); 2) a summary of the whole work (Synopsis); and 3) how the work renders, explains, or expands on the illness experiences or disease processes it covers (Analysis).
According to the art: Sandeep Jauhar describes a select set of historical events that tend toward the triumphant while leaving aside some of the reversals and catastrophes that have historical importance. His views of future advances in cardiology are pessimistic even as cellular and gene therapies are moving into clinical trials at the time he writes this book.
According to the art: This book is a journalistic account of causes and consequences of the opioid crisis in the U.S. during the first two decades of the twenty-first century. The analysis considers social factors, opioid supply chains, and responses of health care professions, criminal justice systems, advocates, regulators, and legislators.
According to the art: The play endeavors to show the raw effects of mental deterioration on aging people and those who are connected to them without having to see them through the obscuring and distorting effects of medicalization. More is thus revealed about the family dynamics in these circumstances and about the robustness of the human spirit.