First week of class down. 6 more exciting weeks to go.
This week, we covered some really interesting stuff . We started off our first class discussing a reading we had for homework on the importance of learning medical history. The authors (David S Jones, Jeremy A Greene, Jacalyn Duffin, and John Harley Warner) essentially argued that learning medical history is important to be a well-rounded medical and health care provider. However, this curriculum is often left out during schooling because there is so much to cover in such a small amount of time. This causes universities to prioritize what's going to be important and most useful in the future. In addition, the authors brought up teaching the history without the information being on the exam. However, they ultimately decided that students will only pay attention to things they know will be on the exam, and therefore wouldn't work.
On Wednesday, we did some really interesting stuff. We started class off with a trip to Widener Library where we completed the 'Widener Challenge' to familiarize ourselves with the library since we are encouraged to use it for research. Prior to this, I had only been in Widener twice to do some homework. So it was really cool to poke around in other parts aside from Loker. We even went to Pusey Level 3 which has seemingly endless rows on books on every topic imaginable. There were so many book they have moving bookshelves to make space!
After about 30 minutes, we returned to the classroom and talked about Disease. Specifically Railroad Spine, the diagnosis for many passengers who rode trains or were involved in accidents, and Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) , which emerged in the late 90's/early 2000's and gives people the irresistible urge to move their legs, especially when they're trying to fall asleep. We also discussed a situation with Dr. H Anonymous and the American Psychological Association (APA), which I found the most interesting. To summarize, Dr. H Anonymous, who later was revealed as John E Fryer, was a gay man and member of the APA. After the stonewall riots of 1969, he couldn't sit back and do nothing so he went before the APA in 1972 and gave a speech declaring that he was a gay psychiatrist. This was pivotal in getting homosexuality declassified as a diseases from the APA. The part i find the most fascinating about the situation is that the members took a vote on whether to continue considering it a disease. With any other diseases they wouldn't have voted in the same manner. There would've been some type of scientific backing and research as to why it shouldn't be considered a disease. So this poses my question:
Did they seriously think being homosexual was a disease or was it just an "other" they didn't want to talk about?
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