The way we were: health library life seen through the pages of the Medical Library Bulletin of the Thames Regions, 1974-94

The Medical Library Bulletin of the Thames Regions reflected the development of health-service libraries over the 20 years it existed. Originally begun as a practical aid to improving services by encouraging co-operation, improving communication and giving instructive advice, it charted the work of health-service librarians and the growth of their services. The articles contained in it covered professional developments and wider political issues as they occurred, and illustrated the extension of the librarians' knowledge and skills. Leslie Morton, Library Adviser to the British Postgraduate Medical Federation, edited almost every issue, starting at a time when there was little guidance or professional literature available for health-service librarians.

Exploring the benefits of user education: a review of three case studies

This paper builds on Leslie Morton's vision of enabling users through education and training. It describes three different approaches to mediated training for medical students and clinicians provided by peers, juniors (i.e. medical students) and information specialists (i.e. clinical librarians) and considers the benefits to the participants. The training was provided either on a one-to-one basis or within teams in their work environments (e.g. offices, wards, team meetings). The first two projects (peer tutoring and reverse mentoring) suggest that contextualized training, using intermediaries, provides the direct benefit of cost-effective IT skill development and the indirect benefits deriving from the interactions between the trainers and the target groups. The third project, the outreach librarian study, provides evidence of both direct benefits (i.e. time saved, quality of service, skills acquired, financial savings and improved evidence-based medicine implementation) and indirect, long-term benefits relating to more social issues (e.g. perceptions of the library, clinical teams, job satisfaction and patient interactions). The general conclusion to emerge from this review of case studies is that the concept of educational benefits is very broad and that empirical studies need to look at both obvious and less obvious benefits.

Racial science in social context: John R. Baker on eugenics, race, and the public role of the scientist

In 1974 a British biologist, John Randal Baker (1900-1984), published a large and controversial book simply entitled Race that reiterated persistent eugenicist themes concerning the relation between race, intelligence, and progress. The history of Baker's book is a case study in the politics of scientific publishing, and his ideas influenced scholars associated with later works such as The Bell Curve. Baker, a student of Julian Huxley, was a longtime participant in the British eugenics movement and opponent of what he took to be a facile belief in human equality. In 1942, together with Michael Polanyi, he founded the Society for Freedom in Science to oppose those who advocated the central planning of scientific research. Baker's eugenics, political activities, and views on race express an elitist individualism, associated with the conservative wing of the eugenics movement, that this paper explores in the context of his career as a whole.

Ethics: how the Apothecaries Act of 1815 shaped the dental profession. Part 1. The Apothecaries and the emergence of the profession of dentistry

The Apothecaries Act of 1815, (revised by the Act of 1825) has been credited with being the most important forward step in the education of the general medical profession in the nineteenth century, although a closely argued revisionist view of its significance by S W F Holloway makes clear his view that it was also a successful and deeply reactionary political move by the physicians to emasculate a rival group growing rapidly in numbers and power. This paper demonstrates that the Act also created a distance between the true dentists and others, like the chemists and druggists, who carried out dental functions. By so doing the Act defined the social identity of the profession of dentistry, in its numbers, status, nineteenth century reform and pattern of education. The paper proposes the apothecary/general medical practitioner as a social as well as ethical role model for the general dental practitioner.

Regulating specialties in France during the first half of the twentieth century

France lagged several decades behind Germany and the USA in dealing with specialist certification. The reason for this delay, it is argued, has to do with the centralized, state-controlled structure of French medical institutions and with the lack of a powerful national professional association capable of taking on the task. Once such an association did appear in the late 1920s, debate within the profession began in earnest. Nonetheless, it took several years to define an acceptable form of certification from among several possible alternatives and many years more to implement the ambitious national system of state regulation that French doctors wished to introduce. Once the system was established in 1947, the attempt to set rigorous, national rules in a multi-regional and multi-institutional context provoked considerable difficulties and complaints.

The myth of Freud's ostracism by the medical community in 1896-1905: Jeffrey Masson's assault on the truth

The story recounted by Jeffrey M. Masson of the medical community's outraged response to the seduction theory is treated as historical fact in some of the recent literature on Freud's early psychoanalytic experiences. In this article the evidence adduced by Masson in The Assault on Truth (1984) to buttress his account of Freud's supposed ostracism is critically examined. It is concluded that this evidence fails to substantiate Masson's version of events, that there is abundant evidence that refutes it, and that he has ignored the historical research that demonstrates that the notion that Freud's early psychoanalytic writings received an irrationally hostile reception is a myth.

Notes on a controversy: the question of lay analysis

The question of lay analysis was one of the most important problems of pre-war psychoanalysis. The controversy began in the late 1910s and ended some 20 years later, in the late 1930s, without being resolved. The 1927 discussion on lay analysis marked the height of the controversy. This discussion also proved to be an important turning point, particularly when two rival attempts were made to settle the dispute.

Making a contribution to the history of psychoanalysis, this paper provides a detailed analysis of this controversy in terms of Bourdieu's work on symbolic capital. The author examines why the problem of lay analysis was never resolved, and links an explanation of this question to the inherent discursive dynamics of the debate. Psychoanalytic institutionalization, it is argued, goes hand in hand with an accumulation of symbolic capital, setting in motion processes of formalization of psychoanalytic discourse and of social distancing between speaker and listener.

The web of honour: soldiers, Christians, and gentlemen in the English Civil War

Contrary to stereotypes that represent it primarily as an expression of machismo or romantic chivalry, military honour in early modern England was professional, moral, utilitarian, and a force for social stability. It was pragmatic as well as idealistic. It shared attributes of civilian honour but also comprehended rules and obligations specific to soldiers. Professional honour required that the soldier should know and observe the codes and practices of his métier. To do so satisfied his internal sense of personal integrity and brought external reputation. Honour also had a broader social value. Mutuality and utility marked its operation in the English civil war. This mutuality safeguarded practices both sides found useful, such as prisoner exchanges, for the honour of each side was engaged in observance of the relevant rules. The survival of a bipartisan soldiers' honour ameliorated relations between enemies. It helped to prevent irrevocable social divisions, to sustain social order, and to enable previously warring Englishmen to live together with tolerable equanimity.