James Le Fanu

Time 2021-11-19 21:06:48

Web Name: James Le Fanu

WebSite: http://www.jameslefanu.com

ID:239697

Keywords:

James,Le,Fanu,

Description:

keywords:
description:
James Le Fanu For every problem there is a solution: neat, plausible andwrong. H.L.Mencken For every problem there is a solution: neat, plausible andwrong. H.L.Mencken Biography

James Le Fanu is a doctor, columnist and historian of science and medicine. He studied the humanities at Ampleforth College before switching to medicine, graduating from Cambridge University and the Royal London Hospital in 1974. He subsequently worked in the Renal Transplant Unit at the Royal Free and Cardiology Department at St Marys Hospital.

For the past twenty years he has combined medical practice with writing a twice weekly column for the SundayTelegraph and DailyTelegraph as well as contributing reviews and articles to TheTimes, Spectator, Prospect, TheOldie, TheBritish MedicalJournal and Journalof the Royal Society ofMedicine. His much acclaimed The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine won the LosAngeles Times Book Prize. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 2014. He is married to the publisher Juliet Annan, has two children Frederick and Allegra and lives in South London.

Recent Publications

His most recent book Too Many Pills investigates the reasons behind the threefold rise in the number of prescriptions issued by doctors over the past fifteen years and the devastating consequences for many of a ‘hidden epidemic' of drug induced illness.

Why Us?: How Science Rediscovered the Mystery of Ourselves investigates the paradox where the major developments in genetics (including the Human Genome Project) and neuroscience of the past two decades have inadvertently revealed the limits of an exclusively scientific account of the form and attributes of the living world and the exceptionality of the human mind.

His (much acclaimed) The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine charts the change in fortunes of medicine over the past sixty years from the supreme achievements of its Twelve Definitive Moments to its current discontents. The Fully Revised and Updated second edition includes an epilogue Ten Years On exploring the major developments of the last decade.

Medicine has become the most visible symbol of the fulfillment of the great Enlightenment Project where scientific progress would vanquish the twin perils of ignorance and disease to the benefit of all. And yet the more powerful and prestigious it has become, the greater the impetus to extend its influence further, resulting in the progressive medicalisation of peoples lives to no good purpose this takes many forms from the over investigation and over treatment of minor symptoms to the inappropriate use of life-sustaining technologies, anxiety mongering about trivial (or non existent) threats to health and peoples everyday lives, and the propagation of unreasonable expectations about what the current state of medical research can reasonably be expected to achieve.

Have we discovered it all? (Daily Telegraph) investigates the current state of medical research and notes the more generous its funding, the more daunting the tidal wave of articles in academic journals, the more striking the paradox that the rate of medical innovationdiscoveries that really make a differenceis a fraction of what it was thirty or forty years ago.

Sciences Dead End (Prospect Magazine) considers the prospects for further scientific advance in the wake of the supreme intellectual achievement of the past sixty years in permitting us, for the first time, to hold in our minds eye the entire history of the universe from the moment of the Big Bang until yesterday.

Aping Mankind (The Tablet) and Metaphysics Resurgent (Brain). These two extended book reviews consider first the philosopher Raymond Talliss critique of the prevailing reductionist account of the human experience and, secondly, the implications of the most recent findings in genetics and neuroscience for the troubled relationship between science and religion.

Profitable Wonders. This popular series on the wonders of biology, natural history and related subjects appears monthly in The Oldie magazinefeaturing the murmuration of starlings, the regenerative powers of the salamander, the miracle of homeostasis, the marvels of skin and the heart and the extraordinary attributes of the living world from bacteria to elephants via the earthworm and the humming bird.

To contact James, please email .

Books The Rise and Fall of ModernMedicine
Fully Revised and Updated 2ndedition Why Us?
How Science Rediscovered the Mystery of Life, andOurselves Too Many Pills
How too much medicine is endangering our health and what we can do aboutit. Links James Le Fanu @ BMJ JRSM The Telegraph The Oldie Le Fanu Family History

TAGS:James Le Fanu 

<<< Thank you for your visit >>>

Hot Websites