Originalartikel: »Ønskebørn skaber gode Hjem«. Et portræt af Agnete Bræstrup (1909–1992)
Christian Graugaard, Hanne Risør & Mogens Osler
“Wanted children make good homes”. A portrait of Agnete Bræstrup (1909–1992).
Bibl Læger 2009;201:372–398.
Agnete Bræstrup graduated as a medical doctor from the University of Copenhagen in 1935. She soon grew interested in sex education, fertility, and legislation on induced abortion, and over the years she became a pioneer in the fight for sexual and reproductive rights domestically and abroad. In the late 1940s, she organized a project on contraceptive counselling in urban Copenhagen, run mainly by female doctors. The project proved to be a success despite numerous obstacles, incarnated not least by the male dominated Doctors’ Association. A few years later, in February 1956, Agnete Bræstrup founded the Danish Family Planning Association (later renamed Sex & Samfund), a vivid NGO that still exists. The Danish FPA soon became the national member organisation of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), where Bræstrup was a key figure for decades. In the article, Bræstrup’s successors as chairmen of Sex & Samfund offer a portrait of a charismatic person and a unique medical career.
Originalartikel: Hvor blev kønnet af? Hvad stiller psykiaterne op med skismaet lighed og forskel?
Karin Garde
What became of gender? How do psychiatrists handle the schism between gender equality and gender difference?
Bibl Læger 2009;201:399–412.
This paper deals with the notion of gender in different fields of psychiatry. Gender is mostly not mentioned in psychiatric textbooks and research and if mentioned it’s typically not commented or analysed in depth. This invisibility of gender is quite striking, but when commented by (female) doctors, it is routinely rejected as feministic propaganda instead of taken seriously as a valid scientific problem with clinical implications for the treatment of both male and female patients. During the process of obtaining gender equality, gender differences have become increasingly invisible in clinical research and practice. Was that an inevitable consequence? The answer is no. The opposite of equality is inequality. The opposite of difference is sameness. Gender differentiated treatment can well be argued for and does not affect the struggle for gender equity in general. This is a matter too for edi-tors of scientific journals and textbooks.
Originalartikel: Læger og patienter i Carlo Goldonis komedier og selvbiografi
Sven Erik Hansen
Physicians and patients in Carlo Goldoni’s comedies and autobiography.
Bibl Læger 2009;201:413–31.
The Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni (1707–1795) composed more than 100 comedies. His father was a physician, and for some months in his youth Carlo Goldoni had to follow his father on the rounds. Two of his comedies deal with the doctor-patient relationship: La finta ammalata (The girl who feigned illness) and Il medico olandese (The Dutch physician), the latter with Herman Boerhaave as the main character. Difficulties in this relationship, also known today, are expounded: Misinterpretation in the verbal communication, the reactions of the patient and relatives to diagnostic uncertainty, the physicians’ handling of psychosomatic symptoms. In the two comedies physicians are generally depicted with sympathy and as individual personalities in contrast to Molière’s aversion for doctors a century earlier. Thus, these two comedies show the emergence of the modern concept of physicians as useful experts and serviceable citizens.
Originalartikel: Sygdomsfortolkning og historiebrug. Et patientperspektiv på årsager til sygdom og veje til helbredelse.
Tove Elisabeth Kruse
Interpretation of illness and use of history. A patients’ perspective on causes of illness and roads to healing.
Bibl Læger 2009;201:432–58.
In this article the interpretation of illness and use of personal history is examined among a group of Scandinavian patients with extraordinary medical histories. The study demonstrates that patients, based on their own illness, perform an active memory work linking past, present and future together. They find causes of their illness in their recent and personal past. Existential strains and crises, psychological tendencies, and the ability to handle social demands and challenges, is often thought to create the illness. The study finds a distinct relation between the comprehension of cause and the personal efforts, and it suggests that a modern notion of “sin” is the focal point of this relation. Sin is still considered a cause of illness, but one no longer sins against God or neighbor, rather against oneself. Sin has been secularized and its foundation is no longer collective and religious, but individual and psychological. The road to partial or full recovery is therefore generally tied to the individual’s flexibility and ability to change.
Forside: Lægen og seksualoplyseren Agnete Bræstrup malet af kunstneren Niels Winkel i anledning af hendes pensionering som formand for Foreningen for Familieplanlægning i 1983 (Sex & Samfund).