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Fenestration Barbara Hepworth
doctors, in their zeal to battle the disease even at the expense of the patient, are portrayed as the mere executors of a fate for which she shares responsibility. According to conventional wisdom, if doctors today are cold and heartless, more concerned with laboratory values than with people, then the emphasis on science and technology in medical training is to blame. Proponents of this view often turn to the liberal arts as a potential corrective.Thinking, perhaps too literally, they see the humanities as humanising, expecting the study of poetry, say, to smooth the rough edges of the biochemist. Wit undermines this false dichotomy of arts and science, revealing to us what anyone who has spent enough time in academia knows: the cold intellectuality that precludes empathy is
a function of the scholar, not the discipline. We see Kelekian and Posner quizzing the medical students around Bearing’s hospital bed, barely acknowledging her existence, prodding her like an object, and we feel the disgrace. But then we see Vivian with her own students, mocking the stupid ones, allowing the smarter ones to talk until they “selfdestruct”, and it becomes clear that the rigid perfectionism that propelled her to the top of her field is accompanied by a contempt for anything less. Vivian, no less than her doctors,despises weakness and elevates the intellect above all other human qualities. By the end of her life, those other qualities are understood to matter most. In a deeply moving and evocative scene, Vivian’s mentor, now a grandmother, climbs into her former
student’s deathbed, takes her in her a rm s , and reads to her from a children’s book (noting of course, the use of allegory in the text).Vivian is in a morphine-induced stupor by then, so the meaning of the scene is ambiguous. Is it a real visit, or is it just a dream? No matter. To Vivian, and by extension to us, her beloved mentor is as real as any other aspect of her illness. And we are left, along with the chilling awareness of how bondage to pure intellect can desiccate a life, with a more redemptive vision of intelligence coexisting with tenderness and love. It’s hard to ask more of a play.
Bertie Bregman Beth Israel Medical Center, New York, NY 10003, USA
Books in brief Fenestration
Barbara Hepworth
Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975) was one of a group of artists who created a revolutionary new approach to the European abstract sculpture of the 1930s. Her work is better known for highly simplified, organic forms (with affinities to the work of Henry Moore and Hans Arp), which have often been compared to the power of classical sculpture. But she is also known for her paintings and drawings. Fenestration (The Microscope), for example, is one of a series of drawings done in 1947 and 1948 that resulted from surgeon Norman Capener's invitation to watch him work at the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital, Exeter. The appeal, for Hepworth, was the relation between the manual dexterity of the sculptor and the surgeon, and her work underscores the way in which a sculptor uses drawing and painting to generate ideas for sculpture. Fenestration is on view in the Spink-Leger Gallery, Old Bond Street, London, UK.
852
Bone measurement in osteoporosis “We believe that the widespread use of ultrasound is inevitable and will eventually mean that all women can have an assessment of osteoporotic fracture risk should they desire it.” So says the preface to the second edition of The Evaluation of Osteoporosis, which emphasises not only the increased acceptance of dual X-ray absorbtiometry (DXA) measurements in testing for osteoporosis and but also the use of quantitative ultrasound for skeletal assessment in clinical practice. (Glen M Blake, Heinz W Wahner, and Ignac Fogelman. London: Martin Dunitz. 1999. Pp 470. £75. ISBN 1-85317-472-6.) Caring for the amateur athlete The message from health-promotion colleagues seems to be reaching the public. One result is that increasing numbers of people are taking part in sporting activities in their leisure time. Despite the obvious health benefits, this trend means that general and family practitioners need to be aware of the more common forms of sporting injuries. They also need to be able to advise patients on the various benefits of different physical activities. Sports Medicine—practical guidelines for general practice brings this information together for the non-specialist. (Domhnall MacAuley. Oxford: ButterworthHeinemann. 1999. Pp 280. £22.50. ISBN 0-7506-3730-7.)
THE LANCET • Vol 353 • March 6, 1999
a function of the scholar, not the discipline. We see Kelekian and Posner quizzing the medical students around Bearing’s hospital bed, barely acknowledging her existence, prodding her like an object, and we feel the disgrace. But then we see Vivian with her own students, mocking the stupid ones, allowing the smarter ones to talk until they “selfdestruct”, and it becomes clear that the rigid perfectionism that propelled her to the top of her field is accompanied by a contempt for anything less. Vivian, no less than her doctors,despises weakness and elevates the intellect above all other human qualities. By the end of her life, those other qualities are understood to matter most. In a deeply moving and evocative scene, Vivian’s mentor, now a grandmother, climbs into her former
student’s deathbed, takes her in her a rm s , and reads to her from a children’s book (noting of course, the use of allegory in the text).Vivian is in a morphine-induced stupor by then, so the meaning of the scene is ambiguous. Is it a real visit, or is it just a dream? No matter. To Vivian, and by extension to us, her beloved mentor is as real as any other aspect of her illness. And we are left, along with the chilling awareness of how bondage to pure intellect can desiccate a life, with a more redemptive vision of intelligence coexisting with tenderness and love. It’s hard to ask more of a play.
Bertie Bregman Beth Israel Medical Center, New York, NY 10003, USA
Books in brief Fenestration
Barbara Hepworth
Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975) was one of a group of artists who created a revolutionary new approach to the European abstract sculpture of the 1930s. Her work is better known for highly simplified, organic forms (with affinities to the work of Henry Moore and Hans Arp), which have often been compared to the power of classical sculpture. But she is also known for her paintings and drawings. Fenestration (The Microscope), for example, is one of a series of drawings done in 1947 and 1948 that resulted from surgeon Norman Capener's invitation to watch him work at the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital, Exeter. The appeal, for Hepworth, was the relation between the manual dexterity of the sculptor and the surgeon, and her work underscores the way in which a sculptor uses drawing and painting to generate ideas for sculpture. Fenestration is on view in the Spink-Leger Gallery, Old Bond Street, London, UK.
852
Bone measurement in osteoporosis “We believe that the widespread use of ultrasound is inevitable and will eventually mean that all women can have an assessment of osteoporotic fracture risk should they desire it.” So says the preface to the second edition of The Evaluation of Osteoporosis, which emphasises not only the increased acceptance of dual X-ray absorbtiometry (DXA) measurements in testing for osteoporosis and but also the use of quantitative ultrasound for skeletal assessment in clinical practice. (Glen M Blake, Heinz W Wahner, and Ignac Fogelman. London: Martin Dunitz. 1999. Pp 470. £75. ISBN 1-85317-472-6.) Caring for the amateur athlete The message from health-promotion colleagues seems to be reaching the public. One result is that increasing numbers of people are taking part in sporting activities in their leisure time. Despite the obvious health benefits, this trend means that general and family practitioners need to be aware of the more common forms of sporting injuries. They also need to be able to advise patients on the various benefits of different physical activities. Sports Medicine—practical guidelines for general practice brings this information together for the non-specialist. (Domhnall MacAuley. Oxford: ButterworthHeinemann. 1999. Pp 280. £22.50. ISBN 0-7506-3730-7.)
THE LANCET • Vol 353 • March 6, 1999