Redeeming Mr. Sawbone: compassion and care in the cultures of nineteenth-century surgery

Brown, Michael (2017) Redeeming Mr. Sawbone: compassion and care in the cultures of nineteenth-century surgery. Journal of Compassionate Health Care, 4.

Abstract

Objective To complicate understandings of the emotions involved in the surgical encounter. Methods I draw on an extensive body of historical material to demonstrate the importance of compassion and sympathy to the professional identities and experiences of early nineteenth-century British surgeons and use this information to reflect on what lessons can be learned for contemporary practice. Results This research demonstrates that compassion and sympathy for the patient were a vital part of surgery in the decades immediately preceding the introduction of anaesthesia in the 1840s and that they played a vital role in shaping the professional identity of the surgeon. Conclusion This research suggests that we might develop more complex and inclusive ways of thinking about the doctor-patient relationship in surgery and that we can draw on the experiences of the past to ensure that we take compassion seriously as a vital element of the intersubjective clinical encounter.