Misery to Mirth

The history of early modern medicine often makes for depressing reading. It implies that people fell ill, took ineffective remedies, and died. This book seeks to rebalance and brighten our overall picture of early modern health by focusing on the neglected subject of recovery from illness in England...

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Hlavní autor: Newton, Hannah
Médium: Online
Jazyk:angličtina
Vydáno: Oxford University Press 2021
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On-line přístup:1000321
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author Newton, Hannah
author_browse Newton, Hannah
author_facet Newton, Hannah
author_sort Newton, Hannah
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description The history of early modern medicine often makes for depressing reading. It implies that people fell ill, took ineffective remedies, and died. This book seeks to rebalance and brighten our overall picture of early modern health by focusing on the neglected subject of recovery from illness in England, c.1580–1720. Drawing on an array of archival and printed materials, Misery to Mirth shows that recovery did exist conceptually at this time, and that it was a widely reported phenomenon. The book takes three main perspectives: the first is physiological or medical, asking what doctors and laypeople meant by recovery, and how they thought it occurred. This includes a discussion of convalescent care, a special branch of medicine designed to restore strength to the patient’s fragile body after illness. Secondly, the book adopts the viewpoint of patients themselves: it investigates how they reacted to the escape from death, the abatement of pain and suffering, and the return to normal life and work. At the heart of getting better was contrast—from ‘paine to ease, sadnesse to mirth, prison to liberty, and death to life’. The third perspective concerns the patient’s loved ones; it shows that family and friends usually shared the feelings of patients, undergoing a dramatic transformation from anguish to elation. This mirroring of experiences, known as ‘fellow-feeling’, reveals the depth of love between many individuals. Through these discussions, the book opens a window onto some of the most profound, as well as the more prosaic, aspects of early modern existence, from attitudes to life and death, to details of what convalescents ate for supper and wore in bed.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-341582025-01-24T04:51:42Z Misery to Mirth Newton, Hannah recovery convalescence cure heal patient medicine disease death emotions joy Early modern period Galen God Humorism thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing The history of early modern medicine often makes for depressing reading. It implies that people fell ill, took ineffective remedies, and died. This book seeks to rebalance and brighten our overall picture of early modern health by focusing on the neglected subject of recovery from illness in England, c.1580–1720. Drawing on an array of archival and printed materials, Misery to Mirth shows that recovery did exist conceptually at this time, and that it was a widely reported phenomenon. The book takes three main perspectives: the first is physiological or medical, asking what doctors and laypeople meant by recovery, and how they thought it occurred. This includes a discussion of convalescent care, a special branch of medicine designed to restore strength to the patient’s fragile body after illness. Secondly, the book adopts the viewpoint of patients themselves: it investigates how they reacted to the escape from death, the abatement of pain and suffering, and the return to normal life and work. At the heart of getting better was contrast—from ‘paine to ease, sadnesse to mirth, prison to liberty, and death to life’. The third perspective concerns the patient’s loved ones; it shows that family and friends usually shared the feelings of patients, undergoing a dramatic transformation from anguish to elation. This mirroring of experiences, known as ‘fellow-feeling’, reveals the depth of love between many individuals. Through these discussions, the book opens a window onto some of the most profound, as well as the more prosaic, aspects of early modern existence, from attitudes to life and death, to details of what convalescents ate for supper and wore in bed. 2021-02-10T12:58:18Z 2018-10-03 09:09:28 2020-04-01T12:33:46Z 2018 book 1000321 OCN: 1051781028 http://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/29613 9780198779025 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/34158 eng open access image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/29613/1/misery%26mirth.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/29613/1/misery%26mirth.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/29613/1/misery%26mirth.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/29613/1/misery%26mirth.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/29613/1/misery%26mirth.pdf Oxford University Press 10.1093/oso/9780198779025.001.0001 10.1093/oso/9780198779025.001.0001 db4e319f-ca9f-449a-bcf2-37d7c6f885b1 Wellcome Trust 9780198779025 Wellcome 288 Oxford, UK open access
spellingShingle recovery
convalescence
cure
heal
patient
medicine
disease
death
emotions
joy
Early modern period
Galen
God
Humorism
thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing
Newton, Hannah
Misery to Mirth
title Misery to Mirth
title_full Misery to Mirth
title_fullStr Misery to Mirth
title_full_unstemmed Misery to Mirth
title_short Misery to Mirth
title_sort misery to mirth
topic recovery
convalescence
cure
heal
patient
medicine
disease
death
emotions
joy
Early modern period
Galen
God
Humorism
thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing
topic_facet recovery
convalescence
cure
heal
patient
medicine
disease
death
emotions
joy
Early modern period
Galen
God
Humorism
thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing
url 1000321
work_keys_str_mv AT newtonhannah miserytomirth