Shapeshifters
A Doctor’s Notes on Medicine & Human Change
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- € 6,49
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'Stylish and exhilarating... from a wide-ranging mind and a profound humanity... inspiring' Hilary Mantel
'A wonderful series of meditations - clinical, anthropological, literary and deeply humane - on his patients and their illnesses.' Henry Marsh
Timely, thought-provoking and eloquent, brimming both with warmth and insight, he puts himself among the ranks of ... Oliver Sacks and Atul Gawande.' The Times
Unreliable bodies and shifting symptoms are all in a day's work for a GP.
In his years of practising, Gavin Francis has seen it all: the promising law student trapped under the spell of anorexia; the bodybuilder whose use of illegal steroids threatens his fertility; the teenager agonising over the perplexing physical dramas of puberty; and the surprisingly upbeat woman growing a horn in the centre of her forehead.
In Shapeshifters he draws on his patients' bodily transformations, both welcome and unwelcome, bringing together case histories and accounts from the history of medicine, art, literature, myth and magic to show how the very essence of being human is change.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An Edinburgh physician, Francis (Adventures in Human Being) undertakes a thoughtful exploration of diverse "transformations" of the human body. His topics include normal anatomical changes such as pregnancy and puberty; abnormal conditions such as anorexia and gigantism; the biological underpinnings of sleep, memory, and jet lag; and external efforts at reshaping the body such as through tattooing and cosmetic surgery. The chapters function less as formal essays than as observations of psychological and cultural links to biological phenomena. They tend to follow a similar formula: mythological, historical, or literary reference; scientific explanation; and anecdotal case with some variation in the order. This formula, though effective, becomes overly predictable; the chapters are best read a few at a time, according to interest, the way one might browse encyclopedia entries. The scientific explanations often read like excerpts from a medical textbook ("The heart develops in the throat from the vessels of these gill arches, and the ductus arises from the residue of the sixth arch") and may tax readers without a background in anatomy or biology. The standout chapters which concern "Werewolves," "Bodybuilding," "Castration," and "Prosthetics" are those that do the best job of blending the book's various interpretive lenses. Francis's wide-ranging experience and curiosity produce fascinating samples of medical and cultural approaches to human change, albeit ones best consumed in small portions.
