In early modern England, patients had considerable power over physicians and played key roles in paving the trajectory of their illnesses, as physicians were not a monopoly. Since patients had the authority to choose who they wanted to treat them, market relations were essential. In particular, the primary sources from The Making of the English Patient demonstrate how patients shaped early modern medicine. These sources unveil the pitfalls of only looking at a patient-focused history and how suffering was depicted as social and cultural occurrences.
During this time, illness was viewed as an object that could be manipulated through various humoral-based treatments and mainly derived from the patient’s perspective. In Sir John Mordaunt’s letter …show more content…
Faith Gary’s diary and as someone in China (Lane 53). The treatment methods would have differed based on cultural influences, and the overall diagnosis would not have been the same; a Chinese physician could have concluded that someone such as Frances was being affected by a virus similar to smallpox. Thus, illness was not purely a collective experience where all illnesses were alike, but rather, each disease had different implications within its social or cultural …show more content…
Patients could choose whether they wanted to see a physician and decide which physician they wanted, or they could have opted not to seek immediate medical attention. Most patients preferred the latter because of time and money. In fact, Joan Lane opens his book, The Making of the English Patient with “…because medical attention, especially from a physician, was costly, it seems many suffers put off seeking medical advice in the early stages of illnesses, often being treated only when incurable” (43). Sufferers instead, tried to make their own remedies at home and classified their illnesses in terms of how long they could delay a physician’s visit: if they were feeling relatively okay, they would just ignore the symptoms until it became apparent that they were starting to feel worse. Nevertheless, when patients did seek medical help, they “…show[ed] a high level of confidence in their treatments” (Lane 43). Previously, in one of Horace Walpole’s letters to Mary Berry, he seemed quite sure that he was getting better but later realized that he was not and remarked that “…a fortnight ago [he] had every reason to think [himself] quite recovering…” (Lane 54). Such presumptuous thoughts often clouded patients’ judgments about their true conditions and made them mistakenly believe that were getting better when they actually were
During this time, illness was viewed as an object that could be manipulated through various humoral-based treatments and mainly derived from the patient’s perspective. In Sir John Mordaunt’s letter …show more content…
Faith Gary’s diary and as someone in China (Lane 53). The treatment methods would have differed based on cultural influences, and the overall diagnosis would not have been the same; a Chinese physician could have concluded that someone such as Frances was being affected by a virus similar to smallpox. Thus, illness was not purely a collective experience where all illnesses were alike, but rather, each disease had different implications within its social or cultural …show more content…
Patients could choose whether they wanted to see a physician and decide which physician they wanted, or they could have opted not to seek immediate medical attention. Most patients preferred the latter because of time and money. In fact, Joan Lane opens his book, The Making of the English Patient with “…because medical attention, especially from a physician, was costly, it seems many suffers put off seeking medical advice in the early stages of illnesses, often being treated only when incurable” (43). Sufferers instead, tried to make their own remedies at home and classified their illnesses in terms of how long they could delay a physician’s visit: if they were feeling relatively okay, they would just ignore the symptoms until it became apparent that they were starting to feel worse. Nevertheless, when patients did seek medical help, they “…show[ed] a high level of confidence in their treatments” (Lane 43). Previously, in one of Horace Walpole’s letters to Mary Berry, he seemed quite sure that he was getting better but later realized that he was not and remarked that “…a fortnight ago [he] had every reason to think [himself] quite recovering…” (Lane 54). Such presumptuous thoughts often clouded patients’ judgments about their true conditions and made them mistakenly believe that were getting better when they actually were