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Reproduction of the original: John Halifax, Gentleman by Maria Dinah Craik
Palliative medicine was first recognised as a specialist field in 1987. One hundred years earlier, London based doctor William Munk published a treatise on 'easeful death' that mapped out the principles of practical, spiritual, and medical support at the end of life. In the intervening years a major process of development took place which led to innovative services, new approaches to the study and relief of pain and other symptoms, a growing interest in 'holistic' care, and a desire to gain more recognition for care at the end of life. This book traces the history of palliative medicine, from its nineteenth-century origins, to its modern practice around the world. It takes in the changing me...
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Introduced in 1964, Cicely Saunders' term 'total pain' has come to epitomise the holistic ethos of hospice and palliative care. It communicates how a dying person's pain can be a whole overwhelming experience, not only physical but also psychological, social and spiritual. 'Total pain' clearly summarises Saunders' whole-person, multidisciplinary outlook but is it a phenomenon, an intervention framework, a care approach - or something else? This book disregards the idea that Saunders' phrase has one coherent meaning and instead explores the multiple interpretations now current in contemporary professional discourse. Using close reading of Saunders' extensive publications, as well as archival evidence and Saunders' own personal library, it situates the current usage of 'total pain' in wider histories of clinical holism, questions its similarity to later ideas of narrative medicine, and explores how it might express the ambiguities of bearing witness to pain an d vulnerability when someone is dying.