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DO WE STILL NEED DOCTORS?

Name: DO WE STILL NEED DOCTORS?
Author: John D. Lantos
ISBN: 0-415-91852-9

by John D. Lantos ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 2, 1997

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The title's challenging question is only one of the many posed in this wide-ranging examination of doctors and the practice of medicine. Lantos, a physician who describes himself as a professional moralist, is asking how recent developments in the delivery of health care change ``what we should think about the proper response to illness and suffering, how we should train the people whom we empower to respond, and how we should shape the institutions that educate those people and deliver those services.'' To explore these questions, Lantos, a bioethicist at the University of Chicago and pediatrician in a hospital for chronically ill children, tells troubling stories from his own experiences. The role of doctors, says Lantos, has always been partly interventionist (diagnosing and treating) and partly interpretive (understanding and explaining the meaning of illness). The interventionist model, he asserts, has won out. The essence of modern medical practice is alienation, disengagement, and ``a weird equanimity in the face of horrific disease.'' Yet while we insist on the physician as scientist, we still yearn in our hearts for the old humanistic model of physician as shaman/healer. Lantos questions whether a single profession can contain these contradictory notions. We may, he says, be witnessing the creation of a new profession ``driven by science, technology, reductionist ethics, and entitlement economics.'' He is not optimistic about the future of medicine, questioning whether some core of morality or belief will persist underneath the transformations that are taking place. Fiction provides some of the most imaginative responses to the question of what we want doctors to be and do, says Lantos, and he concludes by turning to authors Robertson Davies and Walker Percy, among others, for visions of the challenges facing doctors. A disturbing, often painful examination of a profession in transition. (Author tour)

Pub Date: June 2, 1997

ISBN: 0-415-91852-9

Page Count: 206

Publisher: Routledge

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1997

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.