Shock and awe: the performance dimension of Galen's anatomy demonstrations

Gleason, Maud W.

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511770623.007

Cited by 50 publications

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“…Galen's anatomic demonstrations on living animals may constitute the first attempts at "shock and awe pedagogy." The demonstrations' spectacular cognitive and emotional impact produced an amazed audience (6). The emotional impact of Galen's anatomic performances enhanced the learning experience because the shock value created a memorable experience.…”

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confidence: 99%

Shock and awe pedagogy!

Lujan

DiCarlo

2016

Advances in Physiology Education

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GALEN OF PERGAMON (130 -200 A.D.) was an accomplished showman and scientist who made enormous advancements in the understanding of the heart, nervous system, and mechanics of breathing. These advancements were often achieved during impressive public "performances" of vivisection on Barbary apes and other living animals. He designed his public "shock and awe" spectacles like mystical shows with the goal of amazing his awestruck audience. He would marvel and astonish his fascinated audience as they witnessed the anatomic and physiological mysteries of living animals. Galen's spectacular and marvelous anatomic performances looked less like an intellectual class and more like a magic show or perhaps modern bullfight (6). Galen's' "shock and awe" pedagogy has a long and successful, history having persisted for centuries. The success of this unique pedagogy may be attributable in part to a powerful emotional connection. Basic emotions, including shock, anger, fear, and sadness, are shared by all humans. When we experience emotion in our lives, we tend to remember the experience. In fact, the more emotional impact an experience has, the more intensely we remember its details and the more likely it will be stored in long-term memory.To enhance learning and retention through Galen's shock and awe pedagogy, we developed a short inquiry-based "vir

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confidence: 99%

Shock and awe pedagogy!

Lujan

DiCarlo

2016

Advances in Physiology Education

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“…While Galenus's humoralism is notorious, it was his engagement of the pneumatological views of the Athenians and Alexandrians that had lasting influence. Galenus was renown for demonstrationsdincluding competitive 'duels' or 'truth-contests' with other vivisectionistsdof his anatomical and physiological knowledge (Gleason, 2009). In one with Martialius (150-190 ce ), a cantankerous old-fashioned cardiocentrist, Galenus reportedly ligated an aorta to falsify the thesis that arteries convey pneuma, and then applied pressure to the ventricles ad seriatim to demonstrate stupor, progressive paralysis, and apoplexy.…”

Section: Classicalmentioning

confidence: 99%

History of Behavioral Neurology

Barberis

Wright

2022

Encyclopedia of Behavioral Neuroscience, 2nd Edition

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Behavioral neurology is primarily concerned with the neurological causes of degraded behavior following disruption of higher brain function. In the early 1970s, it re-emerged as a subspecialty of neurology focused on diagnosing and treating patients with damages, diseases, and disorders of the nervous system and related tissues that alter normal behavior. While some practitioners have studied congenital diseases and geriatric dementias, behavioral neurology came to overlap extensively with the fields of neuropsychiatry and neuropsychology, differing primarily in the degree of medical diagnosis and treatment of patients. The major advances in neuropsychology and neuropsychiatry are thus part of the history of behavioral neurology.Contemporary behavioral neurology has developed foci in common with the neurosciences, but both have evolved noteworthy differences in remit, scope, and clinical emphasis. As a branch of medicine, the former normally requires expertise in the management of the molecular and neurochemical basis of behavioral disorder, the ability to relate functional and structural conditions to clinical data using imaging techniques and electrophysiological methods, the implementation and interpretation of neuropsychological and neuropsychiatric assessments, and comprehensive clinical diagnosis and therapeutic treatment. By contrast, as a branch of science, the latter has crystalized into an academic discipline concerned with epistemological successes about the neural bases of behavior (basic research) and the use of that knowledge in new technologies and developments (applied research). Medicine is a far older profession than science; by implication, behavioral neurology, as a branch of medicine, is a far older field than neuroscience.This history of behavioral neurology divides into six eras: ancient, classical, medieval, post-Renaissance, modern, and contemporary. In some cases, the divisions correspond neatly to major intellectual boundaries, such as the division between ancient and classical periods by Galenism and between modern and contemporary periods by Geschwind's (1965) two-part opus. In others, the boundaries are such that no non-arbitrary division can be established. AncientAmong the oldest surviving scholarly works in neurosurgery is the so-called 'Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus' (Breasted, 1930). Now dated to around bce 1600, the papyrus is an amalgam of 48 case descriptions transcribed from a much older treatise that are sometimes conjectured to derive from the time of Imhotep (floruit bce 2645). The first 33 cases describe neck and head injuries; they relate trauma and gross anatomical damage to deficitsdincluding hemiplegia, loss of speech, and seizuresdand prescribe various treatments or palliative measures. The papyrus contains a hieretic lexeme for the term brain, one of humanity's earliest recorded uses. Similar Babylonean surgical texts offer descriptive taxonomies of symptoms now associated with seizures, headaches, meningitis, narcolepsy, cranial nerve injuries, and sundry other con...

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“… 13 , 14 His dissections often had a theatrical public component, which boosted the popularity of his works. 15 Galen operated within the belief that all structures were created for a purpose and that their study provided new ways to appreciate their creator, a belief which benefited from its compatibility with the major monotheistic (Jewish, Christian, and Muslim) religious views. 16 , 17 Though Galen is still often considered the most accomplished researcher of antiquity, his treatises were anatomically imperfect, apparently relying too heavily on comparative animal dissections.…”

Section: Anatomy Without Human Dissectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Post-Mortem Pedagogy: A Brief History of the Practice of Anatomical Dissection

Brenna

2021

Rambam Maimonides Med J

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Anatomical dissection is almost ubiquitous in modern medical education, masking a complex history of its practice. Dissection with the express purpose of understanding human anatomy began more than two millennia ago with Herophilus, but was soon after disavowed in the third century BCE. Historical evidence suggests that this position was based on common beliefs that the body must remain whole after death in order to access the afterlife. Anatomical dissection did not resume for almost 1500 years, and in the interim anatomical knowledge was dominated by (often flawed) reports generated through the comparative dissection of animals. When a growing recognition of the utility of anatomical knowledge in clinical medicine ushered human dissection back into vogue, it recommenced in a limited setting almost exclusively allowing for dissection of the bodies of convicted criminals. Ultimately, the ethical problems that this fostered, as well as the increasing demand from medical education for greater volumes of human dissection, shaped new considerations of the body after death. Presently, body bequeathal programs are a popular way in which individuals offer their bodies to medical education after death, suggesting that the once widespread views of dissection as punishment have largely dissipated.

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Shock and awe: the performance dimension of Galen's anatomy demonstrations

Cited by 50 publications

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Shock and awe pedagogy!

Shock and awe pedagogy!

History of Behavioral Neurology

Post-Mortem Pedagogy: A Brief History of the Practice of Anatomical Dissection

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