Über das Erinnern und das Vergessen

Demenz macht Angst, weil sie mit Kontroll- und Orientierungsverlust einhergeht. Das grosse Vergessen hat aber nicht nur eine Schreckensseite

Über Jubiläen und ihre Möglichkeiten

Im letzten Jahr feierte die Augenklinik der Universität Zürich ihren 150. Geburtstag. Unser Medizingeschichte-Redaktor warf einen Blick in den jetzt erschienenen Jubiläumsband und hat Gefallen daran gefunden

"Judenkrankheiten". Eine methodologische Orientierung im Diskursdschungel

The article suggests ways of dealing with the intricate discourse on »Jewish Diseases« from antiquity up to the present – both within and beyond anti-Semitism. Firstly, it presents a four-dimensional model that systemizes the different ways in which the sources talk about the subject. In employing this model the article develops images of Jews and Judaism constructed by them. Secondly, the article distinguishes between a »documenting« and a »deconstructive« way in which the sources are used in the humanities. However, since sources dealing with »Jewish Diseases« are always biased and based on subjective premises, the article pleads for investigating the latter. This even applies to the modern biomedical discourse, for instance on »genetic Jewish Diseases«, which promotes the biologisation and essentialisation of what it means to be Jewish

Eugenische Blicke auf den Körper. Die Herstellung und Verstetigung eines Blickregimes der Minderwertigkeit

The article examines a primarily medical-historical topic with cultural-scientific models of interpretation. Using the example of a boy's patient photograph from 1943, which is intended to depict him as a "degenerative type", the article analyzes the creation and perpetuation of a so-called gaze regime. What steps led to physicians “recognizing” something in unspecific complexes of characteristics that is difficult to understand today: physical inferiority? The process begins with the "visualization" by means of a specific, hierarchical view against the background of a health policy theory. It leads through the stabilization of the gaze through photographs, the typification in picture collections and a gaze training in media of training and further education to the point where the gaze regime is internalized and becomes performatively independent in the medical perception. The practice of looking not only accompanies the prevailing style of thinking, it also actively drives it forward and unfolds a great deal of influence. The findings should not simply serve to scandalize discriminatory gaze regimes, but rather analyze gaze regimes as omnipresent phenomena in order to deal with their logics in an “informed” manner

Die kunstschaffende Heilerin: Emma Kunz

Die Behandlungsmethoden der Heilerin und Künstlerin Emma Kunz mögen heute seltsam anmuten. Dabei griff sie viele geistige Strömungen ihrer Zeit auf, wenn sie mit dem Pendel Krankheiten diagnostizierte oder das von ihr entdeckte «Heilgestein» Aion A verschrieb. Über eine Frau und ihren Platz in der Schweizer Medizingeschichte