“You keep telling me what has been lost, and I keep telling you something remains.” A personal response to:Scar Tissueby Michael Ignatieff

Abstract

Michael Ignatieff is well known as a journalist and broadcaster of a distinctly intellectual kind. He has written movingly on the trauma of modern warfare and Europe following the Cold War. His CV also boasts of studies on the Scottish Enlightenment and nineteenth century penal policy. Additionally, his Booker short listed novelScar Tissueis one of the most interesting studies of medicine and the human consequences of disease of the last decade.

Looking for emerging themes in medical humanities—some invitations to our readers

“…[38][39][40] In addition we have included under the column title "Medicine through the novel" personal reactions to books that have been found influential by invited contributors. [41][42][43] Now simply describing apparent clusters is of course interesting, but where does it leave us? A more ambitious, though of course more awkward, question than simply "Where are you going?"…”