Spring/Summer 2005 - University of Toronto Press Publishing

GENERAL INTERESTLovers and LiversDisease Concepts in HistoryJacalyn DuffinJOANNE GOODMAN LECTURE SERIESCan a disease be an idea? A theory? Does diseaseexist without a patient to suffer from it?In Lovers and Livers, Jacalyn Duffin provides alively overview of the ideas around disease. Sheintroduces philosophical theories of disease anddelves into the history of two distinct afflictions– one old, one new – which serve asexamples to show how applyingtheory can uncoversurprising aspects of themedical past and present.Written with humour and compassion,and using poignant examples fromDuffin’s own clinical experience,Lovers and Livers is based ona series of public lectures andinnovates by utilizing audience participationand a wide variety ofsources including art, poetry, literature,medical journals, newspapers.Duffin’s first example of a diseaseconcept – the now possibly defunct diseaseof Lovesickness – had its origins inthe poetry of antiquity and itsdemise in twentieth-century scepticism,but Duffin argues that it maynot be as passé as is generally thought. The secondexample is the new disease Hepatitis C. Duffindemonstrates that it too stems from ancient traditionand that it has been shaped by discoveries invirology and recent tragedies in transfusion medicine,as well as by legislators, journalists, andpatients.In any given time and place, coherent conceptsof disease emerge from combining social, cultural,legal, and scientific preoccupations with currentepistemological priorities about what constitutesclear thinking. Lovers and Livers will be of specialinterest to scholars of history, philosophy, and medicine,as well as many others.Jacalyn Duffin is a professor in the Faculty of HealthSciences, the Department of History, and theDepartment of Philosophy, and holds theHannah Chair in the History of Medicine, atQueen’s University.‘Lovers and Livers is animportant and well-written book on the waywe conceptualize, construct, and continuallychange our notions of disease. Jacalyn Duffinweaves an intriguing historical tale that combinesscholarship, originality of thought, andimportant ideas with a lively, bright, andwitty presentation.’Jock Murray, Medical HumanitiesProgram, Dalhousie UniversityOf related interest:Hunting the 1918 FluOne Scientist’s Search for a Killer VirusKirsty E. Duncan0-8020-8748-5 / £22.50 / $38.00 / 2003HISTORY / HEALTH CAREApprox. 240 pp / 5 1 /2 x 8 1 /2 / May 200517 halftones; 6 tablesCloth ISBN 0-8020-3868-9 £35.00 $55.00 EPaper ISBN 0-8020-3805-0 £20.00 $29.95 CThe Liver from Vasalius, Tabulae sex, 1538.2