Speaking with Frankenstein

This collaborative essay experimentally applies the insights of Mary Shelley's 1818 gothic fantasy Frankenstein to clinical interactions between present-day physicians and the patients they, akin to Shelley's human protagonist, so often seem to bring (back) to life. Because that process is frequently fraught with unspoken elements of ambivalence, disappointment, frustration, and failure, we find in Shelley's speculative fiction less a cautionary tale of overreach than a dynamic parable of the role that the unspoken, the invisible, and the unknown might play in contemporary physician/patient relationships. Playing with that parable, we consider its relevance to four often unacknowledged dynamics that shape physician/patient interaction: commitment to a false binary of life and death; the tyranny of normative aesthetics; shared negative affect; and the ethics of care and care-denial. To "speak with Frankenstein" is, we show, to make space for the otherwise unspeakable. The result is a more complete model of narrative medicine that accommodates to its ideal of open communication and full attention the persistence of what cannot be said, seen, or known--only imagined and approximated.

     

Mary Cover Jones: Feminine as Asset

Mary Cover Jones has played many roles during her career as a psychologist—researcher, professor, wife of the eminent psychologist Harold E. Jones, and friend to some of the great names in the field such as Erik Erikson and Nevitt Sanford. Included in the paper is a discussion of three of her primary areas of research—the case study of Peter which provided a preview of behavior modification, evidence from longitudinal studies regarding the problems of early and late maturing, and work on personality antecedents in problem drinkers. In addition, her part in the establishment of the major longitudinal studies at the University of California is reported. Finally, her successful application of traditionally feminine strengths to these many professional undertakings is discussed.     

Mary Mary,Quite Contrary

Philosophical Studies -     

Case consultation: Mary Catherine.

A case of the attempted suicide of a 66-year-old female is presented. Comment based on the chapters in this volume is presented. Specific topics of demographics, psychiatric-psychological, object relations, the attempt, and concluding comments provide an idiographic illustration of suicidal behavior in an older adult.     

马利亚

苦、悲痛bitterness背叛者rebel希里的女儿,主耶稣的母亲(太1:18;可6:3,15:40;路3:23;徒1:14),约瑟之妻。她的父亲希里,是大卫王儿子拿单的后裔(代上3:5;路3:31)。天使加百列奉神的差遣,到拿撒勒城去,对童女马利亚说:“蒙大恩的女子,我问你安,主和你同在了!”马利亚因这话就很惊慌,又反复思想这样问安是什么意思。天使又对她说:“马利亚,不要怕!你在神面前已经蒙恩了。你要怀孕生子,可以给他起名叫耶稣。他要为大,称为至高者的儿子,神要把他祖大卫的位给他。     

Mary Steichen Calderone,M.D.

Pastoral Psychology -     

Why Frankenstein is a Stigma Among Scientists

As one of the best known science narratives about the consequences of creating life, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818) is an enduring tale that people know and understand with an almost instinctive familiarity. It has become a myth reflecting people’s ambivalent feelings about emerging science: they are curious about science, but they are also afraid of what science can do to them. In this essay, we argue that the Frankenstein myth has evolved into a stigma attached to scientists that focalizes the public’s as well as the scientific community’s negative reactions towards certain sciences and scientific practices. This stigma produces ambivalent reactions towards scientific artifacts and it leads to negative connotations because it implies that some sciences are dangerous and harmful. We argue that understanding the Frankenstein stigma can empower scientists by helping them revisit their own biases as well as responding effectively to people’s expectations for, and attitudes towards, scientists and scientific artifacts. Debunking the Frankenstein stigma could also allow scientists to reshape their professional identities so they can better show the public what ethical and moral values guide their research enterprises.     

Mary Magdalene

Abstract

We are not to be found among the stones, we have been the stream. And it b the stream, not the colliding boulders, that make up a life. Without the torrent, the boulders do not clash, nothing moves or is bound anywhere. The stream. is the life energy that sets events to reeling and colliding. If the boulders are big enough, they may momentarily impede the stream, but the stream, life, is the energizing power. -Loren Eiseley     

Facing the Pariah of Science: The Frankenstein Myth as a Social and Ethical Reference for Scientists

Science and Engineering Ethics - Since its first publication in 1818, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus has transcended genres and cultures to become a foundational myth...     

Violence as Proof of Existence: Joyce carol oates and the Construction of Shelley the Schizoid

Physical violence becomes the unavoidable proof of existence for the character Shelley in three works by Joyce Carol Oates: the play "Ontological Proofs of Existence," the short story "How I Contemplated the World from the Detroit House of Correction and Began My Life Over Again," and the novel Wonderland. Why does Shelley need such physical violence as her only proof of existence? What factors in the construction of her identity have led to this rather grim choice? Psychoanalysis provides a useful tool for understanding Shelley's character, a character that comes out to the reader, in the three works, as a schizoid, if not indeed schizophrenic. In this paper I argue that the distinction need not be made in order to understand the character. In the three works specified here, Shelley possesses almost all the characteristics that psychoanalysis tends to attribute to the schizoid, and it is by understanding the schizoid in Shelley that we can better understand her need for a physical proof of existence.     

Bioterrorism,embryonic stem cells,and Frankenstein

The stem cell controversy raises a fundamental question for humankind. Does science have a right to pursue knowledge whatever the cost? Our Enlightenment culture says yes. However, human history and literature are sending warning signals. Ethical issues impact the "knowledge for its own sake" imperative, and must be addressed.     

Bioterrorism, Embryonic Stem Cells, and Frankenstein

The stem cell controversy raises a fundamental question for humankind. Does science have a right to pursue knowledge whatever the cost? Our Enlightenment culture says yes. However, human history and literature are sending warning signals. Ethical issues impact the “knowledge for its own sake” imperative, and must be addressed.