Medicine Then and Now

The themes presented in this Presidential address are introduced through masterpieces of medicine in art from the very earliest depictions to the modern day. The representations of medicine in art provide a commentary on the place of medicine in society and how it was viewed by society. Some artists used their work both to highlight important health issues of the time and as a " propaganda " tool to promote social change. Others employed art as a medium to convey their emotions and state of mind to the world. The artistic representations provide an opportunity to reflect on the place of medicine in society then, and now, and explore what changes have occurred over time. In September 1940, four teenagers discovered a complex of caves located near the village of Montignac in South West France. The caves of Lascaux represent an astounding repository of paleolithic art dating back 25,000 years 1. Among the hundreds of paintings and etchings of animals across the ceilings and walls of the caves resides the oldest artistic medical representation. The lone human figure among all the animals is a man with the head of a bird, who appears to be in some kind of trance during a confrontation with a bull (Fig 1). Beside him is a staff. It is widely believed that this figure is some sort of Shaman. The word Shaman originated from Siberia and eventually came to be applied to all medicine men and women of indigenous cultures 2 (Fig 2). Shamanism predates all established religions and involves working with the spirit or soul either to heal or to gain spiritual knowledge. For the Shaman everything is alive and carries information that can be referred to as the spirit, energy or consciousness. In order to communicate with the spirit or consciousness the Shaman will shift his or her own state of awareness. The shift of consciousness allows the Shaman to " see " what the problem is on a spiritual level and retrieve information in order to heal. Illness is perceived as a lack of power and to heal the Shaman returns power to the individual. I first learned of t h e p r a c t i c e o f Shamanism when I worked at the U n i v e r s i t y o f Minnesota in the 1990's. A large c o m m u …