A report in The New York magazine last week speculated on the likelihood that President Trump might die in office because he is one of the least active presidents in human history (link). How, you might ask, has this got anything to do with physiotherapy? Well, the President of the United States, it seems, holds a view about the body, and the detrimental effects of exercise, that was popularised by some of the same 19th century physicians that made physical therapy popular. It seems President Trump 'considers exercise misguided, arguing that a person, like a battery, is born with a finite amount of energy' (link). There's a lovely historical overview in The Guardian about this … [Read more...] about Assault and battery
A new Journal of Humanities in Rehabilitation featuring Thomas Eakins and early photography of motion
Angela Fritz's recent blogpost on the anatomical studies of Thomas Eakins appeared in a new journal that may be of real interest to members of the Critical Physiotherapy Network. The Journal of Humanities in Rehabilitation is published by the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship and aspires to: raise the consciousness and deepen the intellect of the humanistic relationship in the rehabilitation sciences. Our mission is to encourage dialogue among rehabilitation professionals, patients, families and caregivers that describe the human condition as it experiences the impact of illness or disability. We hope to highlight and illustrate the special relationship between the patient and … [Read more...] about A new Journal of Humanities in Rehabilitation featuring Thomas Eakins and early photography of motion
Does curing dominate caring in professional training of physiotherapy students?
Each day over the next week I'll post up an abstract for a paper being presented by a member of the Critical Physiotherapy Network at the In Sickness and In Health conference in Mallorca in June 2015. (You can find more information on the conference here.) Does curing dominate caring in professional training of physiotherapy students? By Tone Dahl-Michelsen Physiotherapy is a profession characterized by emphasizing cure at the cost of care. Lately there has been a call for the profession to increase the focus on caring to be more in step with the demands of the 21st century health care. This implies a concern that the physiotherapy profession continues to remain too strongly focused on … [Read more...] about Does curing dominate caring in professional training of physiotherapy students?
Suffrage suspended? Counter-narratives of womens’ quest for professional legitimacy
Each day over the next week I'll post up an abstract for a paper being presented by a member of the Critical Physiotherapy Network at the In Sickness and In Health conference in Mallorca in June 2015. (You can find more information on the conference here.) Suffrage suspended? Counter-narratives of womens’ quest for professional legitimacy David Nicholls A great deal has been written about the role the suffrage movement played in the development of nursing and midwifery during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Much of this research points to roles played by middle- and upper-class women in professionalizing socially validated notions of caring, and the importance of this … [Read more...] about Suffrage suspended? Counter-narratives of womens’ quest for professional legitimacy