Beyond Imperturbability: The Nineteenth-Century Medical Casebook as Affective Genre

Area of Science:

• Medical History
• History of Emotions
• Social History of Medicine

Background:

• Nineteenth-century physicians were expected to maintain a controlled emotional presentation during patient care.
• Archival evidence suggests a discrepancy between this expected affect and physicians' internal emotional experiences.
• Manuscript casebooks offer a unique window into physicians' private practices and emotional realities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and define the concept of "affective genre" in the context of medical history.
• To analyze the disjunction between performed and felt affect among nineteenth-century physicians.
• To explore the utility of the affective genre concept through case study analysis.

Main Methods:

• Framing the manuscript casebook as an "affective genre."
• Comparative analysis of manuscript casebooks versus published case narratives.
• Close reading of the casebook of practitioner Andrew Bowles Holder and selected contemporaries.

Main Results:

• Nineteenth-century casebooks reveal a "slippage" between expected professional affect and physicians' interior emotions.
• The manuscript casebook serves as a distinct affective genre, differing from published medical narratives.
• Analysis highlights the disjunction between prescribed emotional conduct and lived experience for physicians.

Conclusions:

• The concept of "affective genre" provides a novel framework for understanding physician interiority in historical medical records.
• Manuscript casebooks are crucial sources for uncovering the emotional realities of past medical practitioners.
• Understanding physician affect offers insights into the social and emotional history of medicine.