Incurable and Intolerable : : Chronic Disease and Slow Death in Nineteenth-Century France / / Jason Szabo.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Rutgers University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Szabo, Jason,
• Place / Publishing House: New Brunswick, NJ : : Rutgers University Press, , [2009]; ©2009
• Year of Publication: 2009
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (310 p.) :; 2 illustrations

Terminal illness and the pain and anguish it brings are experiences that have touched millions of people in the past and continue to shape our experience of the present. Hospital machines that artificially support life and monitor vital signs beg the question: Is there not anything that medical science can offer as solace? Incurable and Intolerable looks at the history of incurable illness from a variety of perspectives, including those of doctors, patients, families, religious counsel, and policy makers. This compellingly documented and well-written history illuminates the physical, emotional, social, and existential consequences of chronic disease and terminal illness, and offers an original look at the world of palliative medicine, politics, religion, and charity. Revealing the ways in which history can shed new light on contemporary thinking, Jason Szabo encourages a more careful scrutiny of today's attitudes, policies, and practices surrounding "imminent death" and its effects on society.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. "What Are His Chances, Doctor?" The Semantics of Incurability in the Nineteenth Century -- 2. Reinventing Hope in the Late Nineteenth Century -- 3. "I Told You So": The Rhyme and Reason of Chronic Disease -- 4. Death, Decay, and the Genesis of Shame -- 5. Medical Attitudes toward the Care of Incurables -- 6. Medical Strategies, Social Conventions, and Palliative Medicine -- 7. Ecce Homo: Opiates, Suffering, and the Art of Palliation -- 8. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Incurability and the Quest for Goodness -- 9. The Fate of the Incurably Ill between the Two Revolutions, 1789-1848 -- 10. Caught between Initiative and Inertia: Responses to the Incurably Ill from 1845 to 1905 -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Select Bibliography -- Index -- ABOUT THE AUTHOR