Monday, December 12, 2005

Second Hand Book Reviews: Time for the second hand book reviews, a round-up of often neglected book reviews found in the back pages of medical journals. They don't just limit themselves to text books.

For example, there's Pentothal Postcards, a collection of post cards from around the world sent by the pharmaceutical company, Abbott, to doctors and nurse anesthetists as a promotional gimmick for sodium pentothal. That's right, truth serum. The messages are printed as if hand-written with messages such as: "Kenya, independent since 1963, is one of more than 100 lands old and new where Pentothal is used. Simple administration, easy control, and quick recover make Pentohal a favorite around the world. - Abbott." At the very least, it makes a unique coffee table book.

For baseball fans, there's Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig, which includes letters between Gehrig and his physician at the Mayho Clinic and details the treatment he received and the reluctance of his physicians to tell him his diagnosis or prognosis. Doctors were more paternalistic back then, but one has to wonder how much of that reluctance was due to paternalism and how much to the fear of disappointing a great sports hero (and by all accounts, genuinely very good and nice man.)

And, finally, there's Songs From The Black Chair: A Memoir Of Mental Interiors, which is really the memoir of a decline into and rise from mental illness by a practicing psychologist.

 

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