The Immortal Bard is not only a wit and a genius with words; he was pretty good at getting into his characters’ psychology too… That’s obvious.
Now a colleague has done a review of Shakespeare’s skills in the realm of psychosomatics (body-mind medicine) and suggested doctors could do well to study his plays and the connection between physical symptoms and the characters’ deep emotions (let’s face it, if they study anything it will be an improvement!)
Dr. Kenneth Heaton, a medical doctor and Shakespeare expert, analyzed 42 of Shakespeare’s works and compared them to 46 works by his 16th-century contemporaries. The results are published in the Nov. 24 issue of the journal Medical Humanities.
Heaton reports that Shakespeare was adept at spotting symptoms associated with intense emotion, showing he had a grasp of body-mind symptomatology. Among the states he described in his plays are included disturbed hearing, body coldness and faintness to convey shock, breathlessness, dizziness or faintness, and blunted or heightened sensitivity to touch and pain.
The findings show that Shakespeare was an exceptionally body-conscious writer and should remind doctors that physical symptoms can have psychological or “functional” causes.
[SOURCE: Medical Humanities, news release, Nov. 23, 2011]
Dr M. Its interesting how many little hoodlums there are now indeed. The results which will never come to the surface in mainstream pediatrics however are these: (1) malnutrition secondary to junk food diet and addiction to soda pop; (2) abandonment of children by clueless mothers and fathers who are tuned in 24/7 to their cell phones/computers and ignoring the little ones. (3) Combination of chemicals in the food chain and the water and the vaccines… these kids do not have a snowball’s chance in hell…. they get mercury in too many vaccines given too close together and clueless parents and physicians who do not protest this practice. They are then given fluoride tablets and fluoride water which further poisons their brains and bones… Then they are given aspartame laden Kool-Aide and Crystal Lite which are neurotoxic…. and they are not given ANY quality vitamins. Even prenatals are worthless in their quantities of vitamins and minerals given the context of the nutrition of mothers… And in this context of malnourished mothers/fathers whose brains are off track perhaps it is good that these mothers do not breast feed because they have such poor nutrition themselves and are consuming the toxins… And it goes on. Essentially, the young hoodlums are in a sorry state of malnutrition, brain problems secondary to that malnutrition and in a state of post traumatic stress secondary to being abandoned and betrayed by internet addicted parents. And these children will then be labeled and drugged. The labels will be mis-diagnoses, such as bipolar or schizoaffective, and then drugged with brain numbing chemical sewage. This is what has to come to light. But it is like trying to teach someone who is sedated or drugged. Call it what it is. Child neglect and abuse by the medical system (over vaccinating), the parents (emotional abandonment), society (chemicalization of the food supplies with aspartame/splenda, fluoride, msg, propelene glycol, corn syrup, soy, etc, etc, ad nauseum)!!!!!!. Child abuse and neglect is against the law. The law however is not addressed by the poor and the middle income but seems more available to the rich who can afford to litigate. These hoodlums enter the criminal justice system and churn up grundles of money for the courts and lawyers. Its a sick system that then turns these children over to the county mental health system where they can be diagnosed and drugged along with their parents. Medicaid of course covers this!!!!
Marie,
This comment seems out of place. Shouldn’t it be for COPS OUT OF CONTROL OR ROTTEN YOUTH?
The link under COPS OUT OF …. takes one here, Dr Keith