Research on the Overlooked Romantic Influence on Medicine

Research on the Overlooked Romantic Influence on Medicine

1. Statement of the Problem
2. Objectives

The Romantic era was home to transcendentalism in the form of intellectual, artistic, and literary movements, which served as an advent for the reinvention of science. As a result of this transcendence, this movement sprouted divergent thinking and philosophy in the discourse of science. Elements from this innovative thinking gave Romantic-era scientists the ability to incorporate elements of science that were typically not combined, which revolutionized the scientific milieu in this time period. For example, these revolutions influenced the beginning of the debate of materialism and vitalism, and how Romantic authors and poets began to question these ideas through their work. Although it was unprecedented for the time, Romantic scientists were able to re-invent science with the incorporation of elements in traditional science with components of philosophy to broaden the realm of science and scientific conceptualization. This era also brought the emergence of the rudiments of medicine and science used today. Specifically, the branches that comprise medicine today reflect vestiges of Romantic-era ideologies. The origination of these sub-branches of medicine, such as embryology, anatomy, and vitalism lies in Romantic medicine. This era of new thinking also encompasses the introduction of dialogue on different topos in regards to discussion of the body, life, nature and its healing capabilities.

This proposal serves to explore the revolutionary medicinal thinking in the Romantic period, the origination and ideologies of Romantic medicine, and the discourse surrounding these ideologies in the Romantic period. This paper serves to combine our interpretation of the revolutionary thinking of Romantic medicine along with the previous research regarding advances in science in that era to analyze the lasting implications of advancements in Romantic medicine. By connecting the revolutionary ideas on medicine and science that sparked during the Romantic era to one of the most renowned works from that time period, Frankenstein, the context of how medicine progressed from its ineffectiveness to now could be seen. Mary Shelley, who first-handedly experienced the shortcomings of science and medicine herself, used Frankenstein as a medium to show the general tone of the people towards and the necessary advancement of Romantic science and medicine.

1. Hypothesis

The combination of traditional medicine and the major elements of philosophy allowed Romantic scientists and Romanticists in the medical field to invent a revolutionary wave of medicine that not only focused on the body, but the mind as well. Traditional medicine simply focused on the body and was infamous for treating the patient like an object with no mind or soul. Romantic medicine warned against this practice of objectification while simultaneously revealing the benefits of a Romantic approach to medicine. The Romantic approach focused on the connection between the body, mind, and soul. The body was no longer solely the center for scientific experiments and strictly pathological: the body was viewed as the home for the mind and the body. This connection was also hypothetically questioned by Romantic scientists themselves. The body and the mind and soul were often separated in literary works around this time. This separation usually proved the theory that the body housed the mind and the soul, with the creation of a body usually and gradually resulted in the development of a soul and a higher order thinking. The Romantic interpretation of science proved that art, science, and philosophy were all interconnected.

1. Significance

The debate of revolutionary science, such as the medicinal practices and innovations in the Romantic period, and the question of its ethics pervades in the discourse regarding novels such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Furthermore, the character in the novel, Victor Frankenstein, like other scientists during the Romantic Era, promoted rationality and thirsted for acquiring knowledge and learning about nature’s laws. When creating the monster, Victor perceived himself as a creator with the ultimate power to revive the dead from the graves, and create a new existence. This attempt, driven by Frankenstein’s incessant hunger for knowledge and tremendous curiosity represents not only a scientific pursuit, but also a challenge to the divine, or a biblical downfall. Frankenstein’s incessant, corrupt and unethical desire to “play God” and conquer death led to further death and disruptions. With this tragedy, Shelley implies that the moral fine boundary between the divine and human should be left undisturbed. The debate for ethics vs. science still resides in various fields of scientific studies today.

1. Summary

The foundation of our research sparked from how various parts of Romantic science and medicine affect Romantic literature and how the presence of medicine manifested itself in various ways throughout history and the present . In the midst of numerous sources that we have researched, one particular journal article went deeper into the connection between Frankenstein and medicine during the Romantic era. Our research is necessary in that it reveals a pivotal point in the field of medicine that creates a ripple to present day science and medicine. The combination of the scientific knowledge to philosophy, which was never done before this period, created changes in the medical field, such as embryology and human relationship and sympathy, that is still very much present in current day. The connections made in Frankenstein allow us to view Romantic science not only in a historical lens but also through the lens of an author and through the context of the text. Through the works of literature, we researched the specific advancements, such as embryology, galvanism, separation of mind and body, and more of the Romantic period.

1. Literature Review

A popular topos in Romantic medicine was the physical body, and more specifically, its interaction with the mind and soul. In “Romanticism and the Body,” Alan Richardson explores the importance of the body and the change in how the body is viewed during the Romantic era. The article analyzes the philosophical and scientific approach to the mind and how it is interrelated with the body, and more specifically through the brain. The brain became the center for both Romantic science and “traditional science” and was seen as the center for mental activity. Romantic science was a direct result of the influence of the emergence of both humanistic and scientific beliefs reflected in the work of the Romantic era frontrunners. For example, Keats who incorporated his early medical training into his poetry. The relationship between the idealist conceptions and the material were examined by this dual perspective in science. Literary figures of the Romantic era were greatly influenced by the works within medicine that worked to destroy the lines that separate mental life and the life of the body. It mentions Charles Bell, who championed “vitalism,” a belief in a fundamental difference in animate and inanimate creatures. This idea is a popular theme found in many novels and poems. The idea and mystery behind life and what it is, is one that is continuously explored in Romantic literature.

Additionally, in another article, “Medical Developments In Britain During The Nineteenth Century”, Haley elaborates on the improvements in the medical facilities, medical practitioners, and the prospective for health during the Romantic era. With an increase in hospitals and medical practitioner along with a more sophisticated understanding of Pharmacology and Anatomy, there was steady improvement in the healthcare system. The author concludes that due to the rampant infections, diseases, and illnesses, the Victorians desired to confirm their health status, and intended to understand the connection between bodily health and morals.  the author indicates that both physiological and psychological health, which creates a connection between the mind and the body, were important to people of the Romantic era. However, the intellectuals prioritize the importance of spiritual health over physical. With an increasingly thorough understanding of the anatomical health, people begin to wonder if mental illness, love, sadness and emotions correlate to psychological health status.
In the article, “Romantic Literature and Contemporary Philosophy, Science, and Medicine: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” Jones describes the significance of medicine in the novel, Frankenstein. The author claims that during the Enlightenment Age, people attempt to anatomically revive the deceased with medicine and science in order to attain immortality. Thus, medicine in this novel is a symbol of science, contrasting with ethics. The author concludes that Shelley uses Victor as a symbol to warn the enlightenment seeking scientists of the ethical boundaries that must not be crossed.
Lastly, connecting to Jone’s description on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, we added another article, “Romantic Medicine, the British Constitution, and ‘Frankenstein’”. The author begins the article with the debate on vitalism and materialism and continues with how these debates affected Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. After a brief introduction on Lawrence-Abernethy debates, Marsh discusses the “intermeshing of materialist and vitalist ideas” that Shelley uses throughout her novel to prove the ineffectiveness of medicine in her era. The article mentions several characters from the novel, such as M. Krempe, one of Victor’s professors to compare to the “linear narrative of scientific progress”. Marsh also covers the changes that occurred in the field of medicine, such as caring for their own sympathies. This change in shift is caused by the importance of human sympathy and the human relationship, which is exhibited through Victor’s lack of human sympathy that ultimately causes Monster’s alienation and the horrid effect of loneliness. The latter half of the article focuses on “the British constitution” and how Shelley uses Frankenstein to depict the era’s need for medical and legal reforms, which gives the reader a better insight of the context of when the novel was written. Marsh’s article is useful in ways that it draws textual evidence directly from the book, elaborating on specific characters who interact with Frankenstein and the Monster.

The wonder and mystery of science began during this Romantic science period. The aspects of the wonder and mystery found in science helped catapult many of the scientific discoveries made during this time. The focus switched from being more about the theories and laws of science to being about the wonders and hidden discoveries of science. This allowed the questioning of the philosophy of science and allowed for new discoveries to be made as well as new branches to be discovered.

III. Statement of Need

            Due to its ongoing importance and presence, it is necessary to understand the progress that took place in history to hone the present medical field. Additionally, research on medical concepts born during the Romantic era, such as the notion of dualism of the mind and the body and embryology, is essential to fully comprehend the progress from the past to the present onto the future along with the ongoing debate of ethics in science. Understanding the concepts of Romantic medicine also facilitates with the contextualization of the literature in this time period. This understanding enables the conceptualization and application of Romantic medicinal concepts into the analysis of Romantic science literature. Furthermore, the utilization of medicine in Romantic Era literature still evokes thought-provoking conversations and debates about the boundaries between ethics and science, and continue to guide the scientists and explorers nowadays. Literature such as Frankenstein continues to inspire present scientists, and remind them of the need to respect the moral boundaries that must continue to be maintained. Novels like Frankenstein illustrate the historical context of the Romantic Era and the Enlightenment Era, reflecting a radical notion of moral doctrine of the time. While the protagonist formed a denial for the soul-body dualism, Victor’s creation of the monster would warn scientists and caution them the infringing between mortal scientific endeavors and the power of God.

1. Statement of Significance

The importance of Romantic medicine is shown today through its philosophical influences in the biomedical sphere of science. This era of Romanticism in medicine served as the momentum for a new wave of thinking about the body: as a carnal entity and as a mind which housed the soul. This delineation of the body, or mind-body dualism, had its rudiments in Romantic-era medicine and its implications still dictate biomedicinal diagnosis today. Traditionally, in diagnosis, the mind and the body are often separated to avoid diagnostic bias and to provide a centralized diagnosis. However, both can be viewed as separate entities while simultaneously being used together to create a more comprehensive diagnosis in this scope of biomedicine developed by Romantic medicine. Although this ideology that comprises diagnosis in medicine today delineates the physical and mental symptoms, it is cohesive to depict the mind, soul, and body, and accurately pinpointing the primary source of a symptom. This perspective of separation of the human body also revolutionized surgical procedures which were usually viewed as unethical prior to the Romantic era. Additionally, the act of cutting flesh while the soul is still conscious and present was also unfathomable prior to the initiation and ubiquity of this ideology. However, with the conceptual understanding of the concurrent interrelation and separation of mind and body, procedures were able to be conducted. Furthermore, this ideology of dualism allows us to see how it influenced the practices in medicine today through active separation of these two entities and subsequent re-connections of the mind-body through practices such as ontological duality in surgical intervention. This process, which has its foundation in dualism, enables medical practice today to view the human body in the lens of Romantic medicine as a unified mind, body, and soul.

1. Theoretical Framework
2. Conceptual Framework

This proposal combines the concepts of Romantic science and medicine to depict the origination of contemporary concepts in medicine. Additionally, by analyzing the dualistic nature of the body, along with scientific innovations in the Romantic era, we were able to portray their implications in Romantic literature and their epistemological influence in medicine today.  We will examine these ideas along with current practices, such as ontological duality, to discuss the significance of Romantic medicine. We will also elaborate on the topic of Medicine by expounding on the rudiments of the philosophy of Romantic medicine.

1. Hypotheses

We hypothesize that through our extensive and holistic research, we will be able to further analyze the large influence Romanticists and their theories had on medicine during the 18^th century as well as today. Furthermore, closer reading of not only the Romantic literature, but also other works from the era, such as Romantic poetry, as De Almeida mentions in her book, Romantic Medicine and John, could lead to new findings on how people perceived medicine before, during, and after the period.

Work Cited

Caldwell, Janis McLarren. Literature and Medicine in Nineteenth-Century Britain : From Mary Shelley to George Eliot. Cambridge University Press, 2004. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=181851&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

De Almeida, Hermione. Romantic Medicine and John Keats, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 1990. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/vand/detail.action?docID=241654.

Finger, Stanley, and Stiles, Anne. “Lord Byron’s Physician: John William Polidori on Somnambulism.” Progress in Brain Research, vol. 205, 2013, pp. 131–47,        doi:10.1016/B978-0-444-63273-9.00008-3.

Hadzigeorgiou Yannis, Schulz Roland. “Romanticism and Romantic Science: Their Contribution to Science Education.” Sci & Educ (2014). Published online: 5 September 2014. 1 November 2019.

Hindle, Maurice. “Vital Matters: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Romantic Science.” Critical Survey, vol. 2, no. 1, 1990, pp. 29–35. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41555493.

Knight, D.M. “The Physical Sciences and the Romantic Movement.” History of Science. 5 November 2019.

Mulkay, Michael. “Frankenstein and the Debate over Embryo Research.” Science, Technology, & Human Values, vol. 21, no. 2, 1996, pp. 157–176. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/689772.

Marsh, Sarah. “Romantic Medicine, the British Constitution, and ‘Frankenstein.’” Keats-Shelley Journal, vol. 64, 2015, pp. 105–122. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26177876.

Richardson, Alan. “Romanticism and the Body.” Literature Compass 1 (2004). 2 November 2019.

Ruston, Sharon. “Creating Romanticism: Case Studies in the Literature, Science, and Medicine of the 1970s.”  The Wordsworth Circle. 5 November 2019

Temkin, Owsei. “Basic, Science, Medicine, and the Romantic Era.” Bulletin of the History of         Medicine, vol. 37, no. 2, 1963, pp. 97–129. JSTOR,  www.jstor.org/stable/44446913.