The last physician : Walker Percy and the moral life of medicine / edited by Carl Elliott and John Lantos.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Elliott, Carl, 1961-

Lantos, John D.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Percy, Walker, 1916-1990--Criticism and interpretation.

Percy, Walker.

Percy, Walker, 1916-1990.

Literature and mental illness--United States--History--20th century.

Literature and mental illness.

Literature and medicine--United States--History--20th century.

Literature and medicine.

Physicians' writings, American--History and criticism.

Physicians' writings, American.

Percy, Walker, 1916-1990--Knowledge and learning--Medicine.

Percy, Walker, 1916-1990--Ethics.

Medicine in literature.

Ethics in literature.

Medical ethics.

Ethics.

History.

Criticism and interpretation.

United States.

Physical Description:

vii, 167 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Durham [N.C.] : Duke University Press, 1999.

Summary:

Walker Percy brought to his novels the perspective of both doctor and patient. Trained as a doctor at Columbia University, he contracted tuberculosis during his internship as a pathologist at Bellevue Hospital and spent the next three years recovering from his illness, primarily in TB sanatoriums. This collection of essays explores not only Percy's connections to medicine but also the under-appreciated impact his art has had -- and can have -- on medical practice itself.

The contributors -- physicians, philosophers, and literary critics -- examine the relevance of Percy's work to current dilemmas in medical education and health policy. They reflect on the role doctors and patients play in his novels, his family legacy of depression, how his medical background influenced his writing style, and his philosophy of psychiatry. They contemplate the private ways in which Percy's work had an impact on their own lives and analyze the author's tendency to contrast the medical-scientific worldview with a more spiritual one. Assessing Percy's stature as an author and elucidating the many ways that reading and writing can combine with diagnosing and treating to offer an antidote to despair, they ask what it means to be a doctor, a writer, and a seeker of cures and truths -- not just for the body but for the malaise and diseased spirituality of modern times.

This collection will appeal to lovers of literature and medical professionals alike -- indeed, anyone concerned with medical ethics and the human side of doctoring.

Contents:

Dr. Percy's Hold on Medicine / Robert Coles 9

The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes / Ross McElwee 16

Why Doctors Make Good Protagonists / John Lantos 38

From Eye to Ear in Percy's Fiction: Changing the Paradigm for Clinical Medicine / Martha Montello 46

Prozac and the Existential Novel: Two Therapies / Carl Elliott 59

Ethics in the Ruins / David Schiedermayer 70

Walker Percy and Medicine: The Struggle for Recovery in Medical Education / Richard Martinez 81

Now You Are One of Us: Gender, Reversal, and the Good Read / Laurie Zoloth 96

Inherited Depression, Medicine, and Illness in Walker Percy's Art / Bertram Wyatt-Brown 112

Pathology Rounds with Dr. Percy: The Modern Malaise, Its Causes and Cure / Brock Eide 134

Waker Percy, Reluctant Physician / Jay Tolson 150

Afterword: Writing and Rewriting Stories / John Lantos 160.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0822323362

0822323699

OCLC:

40813329