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his concept of play and of the role of toys and games was remarkably circumscribed. In his desire to
170 establish a controlled environment for the child, he recommended education at home under a private tutor.
The idea of the home as a "sanctum, a haven in a heartless world, developed largely through the
dissociation of the dwelling-place from the place of work and because of the transformation of the middle
175 class woman from an important figure in the family economy to the mother and guardian of children kept
in the home. Prosperity and the desire for gentility produced a growing leisured class of women whose
chief tasks were to adorn themselves and their homes and to superintend the moral welfare of their
180 progeny. For the middle classes of America "work", which had once been associated both with the home
and with the entire family, became a predominantly masculine activity conducted beyond the domestic
horizon. Play, especially children's play, became restricted to the domestic environment in which parental
185 (especially maternal) control could be most successfully exercised.
11. This desire to control the play of children stemmed from notions of play itself. Neither Locke nor
the aspiring middle-class parent thought of play as a means by which children could learn from each other;
190 nor, though they saw play as a means of teaching individuals social and moral precepts, did they envisage
play itself as a form of socialisation. Rather they regarded it as a tool of the tutor or parent, a means by
which children could be educated. Play, therefore, was looked on as an individualistic endeavour, even
195 when it involved other children, and as being didactic in a rather narrow sense.
From: History Today, Vol. 30, December 1980.
HUMANISTIC MEDICINE
IN A MODERN AGE
by Seymour M. Glick, M.D.
l.One does not have to be a pessimist or an incurable victim of nostalgia to agree that modern medicine
in the Western world is undergoing some form of crisis. One indication of the depth of the crisis is the
5
attention with which thoughtful people are willing to consider seriously almost any criticism of physicians
and of the medical establishment-even such absurd critiques as those of Illich, who would have us believe
that modem medicine is almost the reincarnation of the Devil himself. Similarly, the proliferation of health
10
cults even within educated and otherwise sophisticated circles bears witness to the crisis of confidence
besetting modern medicine. Finally, most striking are the articles, books, and even institutes on
«humanistic medicines»-a phrase that logically should be redundant.
15
2.Medicine has succeeded in wiping out many diseases. Last year after a crash global eradication
program that cost $300 million, the World Health Organization announced officially that smallpox is dead.
This achievement and hundreds of others have brought relief and comfort to billions of people on our
20
planet, and modern science and technology continue to break new frontiers daily. Yet the refrain of malaise
and dissatisfaction with modern medicine and its institutions continues to reverberate, and it does not seem
to subside. Invariably, the discontent focuses on the human and compassionate aspects of medicine. It has
25
been said that as medicine progresses, physicians regress.
3.n cannot deny that problems exist, that as the scientific benefits of medicine have been extended,
the delivery of care has become more institutionalized and depersonalized. I personally cannot vouch for
30 the truth of the memory of how much better things were at the turn of the century. I suspect some degree of
exaggeration in favor of the «good old days», since most of us tend to glorify the past nostalgically — often
undeservedly. However, today's defects are clear to us all.
35 4. I should like to examine briefly some of the reasons that have been cited for the alleged deterioration
of modern medicine, some of the remedies offered, and some of my personal biases on the subject. The
analysis will perhaps be oversimplified, but my purpose is mainly to stimulate some thought and reaction,
not to offer a definitive analysis.
40 5.The view that is most common, and perhaps most widely held by nonphysicians, is that there is
something inherently contradictory between science and humanity, between technology and compassion. If
this were indeed the case, it would be almost inevitable for humanity to regress as science marched ahead.
45
I believe this view to be a dangerous one with farreaching consequences ofanti-intellectualism and
antiscience. This view is perhaps a holdover from t he classic Cartesian mind-body dualism, with
50
compassion representing the mind or soul and science the body and the two somehow antagonistic. If one