Description:

Carli Leone
Doctoral Student, English Department
Graduate Affiliate, MH&B Program
Northwestern University

Benjamin Rush: Founding Father of the Medical Humanities

Benjamin Rush was the most well known physician in the United States at the turn of the nineteenth century. He was also a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a reformer who supported female education, a revision of the penal laws, and improvement in city sanitation. Throughout the centuries, however, his legacy has been haunted by his excessive use of bloodletting to cure fevers. In this talk I will resuscitate his reputation by positioning him as the founding father of the Medical Humanities in the United States. This talk will focus on how and why he incorporated literature into his medical texts and, in turn, how and why we should read his medical texts as literature. I will conclude by suggesting the ways we can connect Rush’s work and vision to the Medical Humanities today.