Medicina nei secoli
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Medicina nei secoli · Jan 2014
Historical ArticleThe monstrous metallic in medicine and horror cinema.
`This paper considers the monstrous nature of medical tools and devices through the lens of horror cinema and the art of Damien Hirst. In it I argue for a shift from the monster and the monstrous as organic to the threat of the monster as an inorganic object in tools such as the scalpel and syringe. However, the metaphorical significance of the monster is sustained in these tools where human technological creations continue the discourse of the monster as a product of human creativity.
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Medicina nei secoli · Jan 2014
Historical ArticleWhen 'drugs' become 'drugs': issues of pharmaceutical abuse in France from the 1960s to the 1990s.
Since the 1970s, media frenzies about drug addiction have focused mainly on illicit drugs taken by rebellious or marginalised addicts, relegating iatrogenic drug abuse, and policies and problems linked to psychotropic pharmaceuticals available by prescription or over-the-counter to the shadows. In this article I go beyond the division between illicit drugs and medicines still configuring both public representations and historiography: using archival materials from the 1960s-1990s in France, I highlight some blind spots in drug history. ⋯ Finally, I analyse the role of physicians and pharmacists in this control, and discuss the various professional debates relating to the legal supply of psychoactive drugs. In all these issues, the frame of the Cold War context will also be highlighted.