First Do No Harm: Empathy and the Writing of Medical Journal Articles [Hardcover]

Mary E. Knatterud, Ph.D. is a research associate and assistant professor in the Department of Surgery of the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis. Dr. Knatterud is a fellow of the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA), a member of the Conference of College Composition and Communication (CCCC) and of the Council of Science Editors (CSE). She has published articles about medical communication in the AMWA Journal, Dialysis & Transplantation, and Minnesota Physician among others.Chapter I. Overview: A Rhetorical Shift, Over Time, in the Social Construction of Patients in the New England Journal of Medicine Tables 1-5Chapter II. New England Journal of Medicine, March 25, 1828: On a Last-Name Basis with Fleshed-Out PatientsChapter III. New England Journal of Medicine, March 25, 1858: Medical Priests Constructing Good and Bad PatientsChapter IV. New England Journal of Medicine, March 29, 1888: Reductionist Measurements and Refractory PatientsChapter V. New England Journal of Medicine, March 28, 1918: Nationalistic and Metaphoric Constructions of PatientsChapter VI. New England Journal of Medicine, March 25, 1948: Problem Patients to Perform on and Manage Chapter VII. Conclusion: Speculation about Causes and Consequences of Less Empathetic LanguageAppendix A: Classical Roots and Modern Meaning of EmpathyAppendix B: Suggestions for Avoiding Nonempathetic LanguageAppendix C: Brief Summaries of New England Journal of Medicine ChaptersFirst Do No Harm is an interdisciplinary study examining how various members of academic physicians have constructed certain images of patients on paper over time. The study pays special attention to the classical concept of pathos, or its modern equivalent, empathy.US