Palgrave Studies in Literature, Science and Medicine Palgrave Studies in Literature, Science and Medicine is an exciting new series that focuses on one of the most vibrant and interdisciplinary areas in literary studies: the intersection of literature, science and medicine. Comprised of academic monographs, essay collections, and Palgrave Pivot books, the series will emphasize a historical approach to its subjects, in conjunction with a range of other theoretical approaches. The series will cover all aspects of this rich and varied field and is open to new and emerging topics as well as established ones.
The practices of medicine across history and culture illuminate the centrality of the physical intimacy of touch in the expression of the healer's care. Yet much of modern western medicine diminishes the value of intimacy in the expertise of the clinician, and marginalises emotionally inflected practices into categories of care that are separate from the expertise of the clinician. Can such a divide between the objectifying clinical gaze and the intimacy of emotional care be made without losing something vital to the therapeutic processes of healing? To reinvigorate debate about the place of intimacy for contemporary clinical practice, we look back to medieval literature, which illuminates two traditions in understanding intimacy and its inter connections with healing. One of these traditions has become dominant in modern health care; we call for a re-engagement with the second in contemporary clinical practice.The physical intimacy of touch held special power in the medieval period, and perhaps this is unsurprising since at this time medicine was limited almost exclusively to palliative care. In the medieval world, not only were cures rare but also illness itself was perceived as deeply mysterious, often attributed to supernatural causes. Medical texts mainly comprise treatises rooted in classical humoral theory, compendia of ailments and treatments, and collections of remedies. It is literature, and especially Romance literature-the imaginative fiction of the Middle Ages-that offers insights into cultural attitudes and ideas.Medieval writing reflects the hope for divine intervention or medical marvel in its repeated images of healers possessed of holy or magical powers. Touch is the instrument in all these cases, reflecting both its importance in palliative care and its prominent role in the healing miracles of Judaeo-Christian tradition. Expressions of the intimacies of the healing touch are, however, subtly differentiated. The connection between touch and the intimacy of personal attachment is repeatedly emphasised in medieval Romance, where women tend and heal the wounds of their beloved knights. Sir Thomas Malory in his Le Morte Darthur (1485) emphasises the conjunction of medical knowledge and romantic love in describing how Sir Tristram's wounds are healed by his lady, La Beale Isode, who is "a noble surgeon". By contrast, Malory depicts the healing of the poisoned wounds of Sir Urry as effected not through the personal attachment of the healer, but through a more abstract intimacy between the healer as instrument of the divine and the human sufferer. Of all King Arthur's knights, only "the beste knyght of the worlde" Sir Launcelot succeeds, and the miracle of healing reflects his spiritual perfection. This spiritual perfection comprises an intimate connection to the divine and an abstract love for his fellow knight, and is manifest emotionally through his virtue and humility. The degree of personal involvement with the * S.J.Atkinson@durham.ac.uk.
This article draws on research from the major collaborative research project Hearing the Voice, based at Durham University, to reconsider and foreground Margery Kempe’s inner voices, and hence, to return to an emphasis on inner, spiritual experience as shaping her Book. The richness of Margery’s multi-sensory experience, and the care with which it is depicted, is illuminated by and illuminates the experience of contemporary voice-hearers, offering a powerful alternative perspective to often reductive bio-medical understandings. Contemporary cognitive frameworks, particularly scientific accounts of inner speech, are in turn employed to open out Margery’s inner voices and to offer insights into the psychology of spiritual meditation.
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