Emotions and Surgery in Britain, 1793–1912

Description

In this innovative analytical account of the place of emotion and embodiment in nineteenth-century British surgery, Michael Brown examines the changing emotional dynamics of surgical culture for both surgeons and patients from the pre-anaesthetic era through the introduction of anaesthesia and antisepsis techniques. Drawing on diverse archival and published sources, Brown explores how an emotional regime of Romantic sensibility, in which emotions played a central role in the practice and experience of surgery, was superseded by one of scientific modernity, in which the emotions of both patient and practitioner were increasingly marginalised. Demonstrating that the cultures of contemporary surgery and the emotional identities of its practitioners have their origins in the cultural and conceptual upheavals of the later nineteenth century, this book challenges us to question our perception of the pre-anaesthetic period as an era of bloody brutality and casual cruelty. This title is also available as open access. Cover Half-title page Title page Copyright page Dedication Contents List of Figures Acknowledgements Note on the Text List of Abbreviations Introduction A ‘Black Whirlwind of Emotion’: George Wilson’s Surgery Historiography and Context Chronology and Concepts Sources and Structure 1 Between Art and Artifice: Emotion and Performance in Romantic Surgery Introduction Anatomy, Science, and the Decline of Heroic Surgery Embodied Knowledge, Dexterity, and the Moral Surgeon The Operating Theatre as Performative and Emotional Space Robert Liston: The Making of an Ambivalent Icon Conclusion 2 Anxiety and Compassion: Emotional Intersubjectivity and the Romantic Surgical Relationship Introduction Expressing Surgical Emotions Managing Surgical Emotions Astley Cooper’s Casebooks: Emotions, Gender, and Intersubjectivity in Practice Conclusion 3 The Patient’s Voice: Conscious and Unconscious Agency in Romantic Surgery Introduction ‘A Sensation of Half Dying’: The Patient’s Account of Surgical Illness ‘Wilful and Bad to Manage’: Agency and Resistance in the Hospital ‘Obstreperous’ Patients and ‘Bad Stumps’: Irritability and Unconscious Resistance Conclusion 4 ‘Scenes of Cruelty and Blood’: Emotion, Melodrama, and the Politics of Romantic Surgical Reform Introduction The Politics of London Surgery The Lancet and the Melodramatic Mode The Emotional Politics of Radical Scrutiny Conclusion 5 Quiescent Bodies: Utilitarianism and the Reconfiguration of Surgical Emotion Introduction The ‘Struggles of Natural Feeling’: Emotions and the Dead Constructing the ‘Chamber of Sleep’: Emotions and the Unconscious Conclusion 6 The ‘New World of Surgery’: Sepsis, Sentiment, and Scientific Modernity Introduction ‘A Different Thing Altogether’: Emotions, Ontology, and Antiseptic Surgery ‘One Cannot Consult with a Deity!’ Emotions, Performance, and the Modern Surgeon Conclusion Epilogue: New Pasts, New Futures Select Bibliography Index