Art Synthesis: The Self-Operation - Essay Example

Art Synthesis: The Self-Operation Development of Medicine through the Ages Medicine has undergone a number of political, economic, and historical changes as a result of scientific discoveries and practices. During the early times, people believe on folklore knowledge of herbs and remedies as treatment; some sought haphazard treatment especially during the medieval times. According to Kirby et al., the historical development of medicine has three main stages – first stage, second stage, and third stage (117). The first stage covers the period of middle Ages up to the later eighteenth century. In this stage, only the wealthy individuals are able to maintain wellness as they have family doctor who constantly monitors their health. There were only limited diagnostic tools to be used and one’s health problem can only be recognized using patient’s own account. The second stage started in the nineteenth century when there is a widespread of medical treatment. Many relatively crude diagnostic tools were developed such as stethoscopes and thermometers and the ill-body is viewed similarly to a machine that needs to be fixed. Among the highlights of the second stage include the development of germ theory of disease and the discovery of antibiotics, vaccination, water sanitation, and anesthetics. In this time, hospitals also began to gain a positive image as they were no longer seen as a place to die in due to unaffordability. Lastly, the third stage marked the enactment of the Public Health Act of 1848 and government focused on the health needs of the dynamic and increasingly urbanized and industrialized society. In addition to the stages of development discussed above, medicine also evolved and differed from civilizations and countries around the world. For instance, the Greek-Roman medicine has been viewed as the cradle of Western medicine as these were the civilizations where Hippocrates (The Father of Medicine) and Galen (Prince of Physicians came from. Hippocrates laid out the foundation of medical ethics, provided the model for the model for the clinical-case history, and explained phenomena regarding what is divine and supernatural; likewise, Galen’s experiments on dissection and pharmacology, systematic theory of the human body, and insistence of logical rigor have become significant in the historical development of medicine (Jackson, 21). In a tour at the Grohmann Museum, I came to see a painting of a man who might be in extreme pain because of appendicitis so that he decided to operate on himself. From the look at it, I can see that the man has great anatomical knowledge. Thanks to Galen, he has this knowledge! But who is Galen and what drives him to study human anatomy? Based on the website of Grohmann Museum, Galen was the son of a gifted architect and was born on Bergama, Turkey which has a shrine to Asclepius (god of healing) (n.p.). This shrine, together with his meetings with the Romans, greatly influenced his education and began to dissect lower animals, particularly African monkey. He demonstrated that arteries carry blood and the pneuma carried by it was responsible for several body processes and that human health required the balance of four humors (phlegm, black bile, yellow bile and blood) (Grohmann Museum, n.p.). With this foundation he laid during the 5th century BC, he instilled a powerful influence not only in medicine but also in painting. Aside from the Self-Operation painting, a number of paintings in Grohmann Museum were inspired by Galenic theories, including bloodletting in “A Doctor’s Surgery by Jean Joseph Horemans, blistering wounds with oozing fluids in “A Doctor Tending a Wounded Peasant” by a follower of Adriean Brouwer, and others. The Artwork The artwork “Self-Operation” is a type of oil on canvas painting that was painted by Christian Couwenberch (Circle of Dutch, 1604-1667). According to the data from the museum, the size of the painting is 43 x 37 inches (109 x 94 cm.). If you would remember, it was stated earlier that the hospital is viewed as place not to live at but to die in and people relied heavily on folklore remedies to cure their diseases. These beliefs probably drove the man to seek self-treatment and operate on himself. In the painting, you would see a man with dramatic facial expression and posture as he performed self-surgery to remove his appendix. The painting was subjectively good in rendering emotional elements to the painting; however, the painting left a question of why the incision is too high, why the appendix is too long and not inflamed, and why is the procedure itself has no evidence of bleeding considering that it is an operation that requires greater courage? The answer lies on the nature of the Dutch genre painting. Dutch genre type of painting focuses on existential and subjective portrayal of life. It does not focus on scientific bases and technicalities but more of to the emotional impact one could reflect on the emotions of the characters in the painting. Description of the Output The painter of Self-Operation uses a canvas (a piece of cloth prepared as a surface to receive oil paint) and a portrait of a person who is self-operating him. Texture hair, towel of the head, face, body and knife can be imagined in the painting. The painter also applied colors suggesting warmth such as red, yellow, and orange to highlight the emotional and physical pain being experienced by the person in the portrait. Composition or the placement of light and dark areas was good at highlighting the subject and the emotional expression. The left arm have lines that are at an angle (diagonal lines) and movement effect which added to the grimace of pain. The right body with the incision seems the foreground of the painting and represents the core idea of the painting. Perspective and Experience The painting Self-Operation is somewhat related to the concepts of death and progress. Let us discuss the different concepts one by one. Everybody has feared of death and nobody wants to die early. You would do anything, even what we thought of before was impossible just to avoid death. One will explore all possible means to live life to the fullest and maximize his potentials as an individual. This often happens during survival events when you are threatened by an imminent death. Probably, I could say that one of the experiences I had which is similar to the painting was the experience of deprivation and survival during a crisis. Back then, I thought I couldn’t deprive myself of basic needs even for a day, be able to live without the technologies I have, and swim in the midst of raging typhoon to save all our appliances. But I was wrong. Because of the fear that the impact of this typhoon might last for long and soon we will no longer have any food to eat, I feared that we could die of starving. I cannot deprive myself of basic needs even for a day but I learned and I have to because I want to live. I believed that I cannot live without the cars, machines, appliances, and gadgets that ease our living but because I feared that we might die in saving these modern technologies, I learned and I to let go of these things. At first, we tried to save these things and have to swim in the midst of raging typhoon but eventually, we still valued life and we were scared that we might die and end up in leaving everything we have founded. As you can see, a person learned and has to do something beyond his capabilities in order to survive. Upon analysis of the paper, one can see that medicine has evolved significantly. From the former view of hospitals as a place to die in, it became a place where wellness, treatment, and recovery are sought. From distrust of doctors and use of only folklore remedies, people began to trust their medical practitioners and relied on scientific medicine, practices, and pharmaceuticals in order to be cured or get well. From limited diagnostic tools, it became varied, diverse, and complex to fit the needs of the patient. Just exactly as human development! We grow in all aspects to meet the needs of this dynamic society. We study, discuss, and gain knowledge from which we could use to improve ourselves. My perception of death would be different during my childhood years than now; however, I learned that during a crisis, man can stay for long depriving himself of the basic needs he used to have in order to survive. Thesis Statement Self-deprivation during a crisis – A mind-over body phenomenon that leads to survival. Works Cited Grohmann Museum. Self-Operation. Accessed on 16 April 2013 from http://www.msoe.edu/manatwork/ Jackson, Mark. The Oxford Handbook of the History of Medicine. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Kirby, Mark et al. Sociology in Perspective: AQA Edition. Oxford: Heinemann Educational Publishers, 2000. Haviland, William A., Prins, Harald E., Walrath, Dana., & McBride, Bunny. Anthropology: The Human Challenge. California: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2011. Read More