Emotions and Surgery in Britain, 1793–1912

Michael Brown

doi:10.1017/9781108877237

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This Book has been cited by the following publications. This list is generated based on data provided by Crossref.

Arnold-Forster, Agnes Brown, Michael and Moulds, Alison 2022. Health, policy and emotion. Medical Humanities, Vol. 48, Issue. 4, p. 389.

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Bangham, Jenny 2023. Making the ‘genetic counsellor’ in the UK, 1980–1995. Medical Humanities, Vol. 49, Issue. 2, p. 248.

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Bangham, Jenny Hilevych, Yuliya and Rusterholz, Caroline 2023. Talking about sexual and reproductive health: counselling encounters in postwar Europe. Medical Humanities, Vol. 49, Issue. 2, p. 149.

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Arnold-Forster, A 2023. Surgical history: a double-edged scalpel. The Bulletin of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Vol. 105, Issue. 2, p. 87.

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Cooper, Maxwell John Fernandes, Carl and Cooper, Sarah 2024. Consulting in the dark: Robert Hamilton (1749–1830) and the importance of ‘tenderness’ towards patients. Journal of Medical Biography,

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Begiato, Joanne and Brown, Michael 2024. Radical exposure: religion, masculinity, and politics in the William Bengo’ Collyer scandal. History of European Ideas, p. 1.

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Michael Brown, Lancaster University

Publisher:: Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:: October 2022
Print publication year:: 2022
Online ISBN:: 9781108877237
DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108877237
Creative Commons:: This content is Open Access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/creativelicenses

Subjects:: British History after 1450, History, History of Medicine

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In this innovative analytical account of the place of emotion and embodiment in nineteenth-century British surgery, Michael Brown examines the changing emotional dynamics of surgical culture for both surgeons and patients from the pre-anaesthetic era through the introduction of anaesthesia and antisepsis techniques. Drawing on diverse archival and published sources, Brown explores how an emotional regime of Romantic sensibility, in which emotions played a central role in the practice and experience of surgery, was superseded by one of scientific modernity, in which the emotions of both patient and practitioner were increasingly marginalised. Demonstrating that the cultures of contemporary surgery and the emotional identities of its practitioners have their origins in the cultural and conceptual upheavals of the later nineteenth century, this book challenges us to question our perception of the pre-anaesthetic period as an era of bloody brutality and casual cruelty. This title is also available as open access.

Winner, 2024 Choice Awards

‘Pain and compassion, sentiment and science: these are the themes that Michael Brown explores in his history of surgery. By fusing the history of emotions with the history of medicine, Brown sheds new light on clinical interactions. The book is an original and enthralling account of the emotional lives of surgeons.'

Joanna Bourke - Birkbeck, University of London

‘Based on a wealth of new and relevant sources, this book analyses the story of a key period in the history of modern surgery in a novel and original way. In combining the history of emotions with the history of surgery it is a model of what professional history of medicine can and should do.'

Thomas Schlich - McGill University

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Emotions and Surgery in Britain, 1793–1912

This Book has been cited by the following publications. This list is generated based on data provided by Crossref.

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Contents

Emotions and Surgery in Britain, 1793–1912
pp i-ii

Emotions and Surgery in Britain, 1793–1912 - Title page
pp iii-iii

Copyright page
pp iv-iv

Dedication
pp v-vi

Contents
pp vii-vii

Figures
pp viii-viii

Acknowledgements
pp ix-xii

Note on the Text
pp xiii-xiii

Abbreviations
pp xiv-xiv

Introduction
pp 1-18

1 - Between Art and Artifice
pp 19-64

2 - Anxiety and Compassion
pp 65-108

3 - The Patient’s Voice
pp 109-148

4 - ‘Scenes of Cruelty and Blood’
pp 149-184

5 - Quiescent Bodies
pp 185-236

6 - The ‘New World of Surgery’
pp 237-274

Epilogue
pp 275-287

Select Bibliography
pp 288-301

Index
pp 302-310

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Emotions and Surgery in Britain, 1793–1912

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