First Cut: A Season in the Human Anatomy Lab [Paperback]

Albert Howard Carter (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 031219546X | ISBN-13: 978-0312195465 | Publication Date: July 15, 1998 | Edition: 1st

With humor, compassion, and wisdom, Howard Carter recounts the semester he spent watching first-year medical students in a human anatomy lab. From the tentative early incisions of the back, the symbolic weight of extracting the heart, and by the end, the curious mappings of the brain, we embark on a path that is at once frightening, awesome, and finally redemptive.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Many of us have heard stories about ghoulish medical students and the pranks they play using arms, heads, or other parts "borrowed" from the cadavers in their anatomy labs. Like most urban legends, these stories are both compelling and untrue, telling us more about how we imagine the world to be than how it really is. First Cut contains the observations of a humanities professor allowed to watch medical students struggle with the challenges presented by their first anatomy class. Carter tracks, and mirrors, the students' progress from initial nervous joking and unwillingness to touch the bodies to familiarity and respect for their "silent instructors," culminating in an end-of-term Service of Reflection and Gratitude.

As he sees changes "in personal feelings about death, touching, and the wonderfully complex activities of the human body" in the young men and women, he also puts to rest the memory of his father, who had donated his body for medical study. Pacing the story are three inspired essays on the nature of medical education and thirty beautiful and absorbing Renaissance anatomical illustrations. First Cut, far from being a sensationalistic account of young doctors run amok, is perfect for anyone who is interested in understanding medicine and its practitioners. --Rob Lightner --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Humanities professor Carter spent a semester as a Dana Foundation Fellow observing the human anatomy class for first-year medical students at Emory University, and this book is the result?a rare opportunity for outsiders. As a book, however, it's something of a missed opportunity. While readers are taken carefully through the series of cadaver dissections by which medical students begin to learn anatomy and integrate their own humanity with their chosen profession, this book is too much step by step, with too little integration. Seeming to be largely nonintrospective, the students rarely come alive themselves, because the focus of their struggle is narrowly confined to performing well on quizzes and exams. The author's search for familial identity and history (his father willed his own body to anatomical study) is human but not compellingly narrated. Note to general and K-12 collections: although maturely handled, parts of the narrative are almost gory, and the "jokes" are potentially upsetting. More suitable for academic collections.?Mark L. Shelton, Univ. of Massachusetts Medical Ctr., Worcester
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Picador; 1st edition (July 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031219546X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312195465
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #994,518 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a great relief and a great read, April 1, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (tuscaloosa, alabama) - See all my reviews

This review is from: First Cut: A Season in the Human Anatomy Lab (Hardcover)

In the fall I will begin my first semester as a medical school student. I find the prospect of gross anatomy terrifying, and this book did an excellent job of lessening my anxiety towards the course and towards the ordeal that is medical school itself.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Glimpse Into the 1st Year of Med School!, March 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: First Cut: A Season in the Human Anatomy Lab (Hardcover)

As a premedical student, I thoroughly enjoyed this piece of work...It examines the physical and emotional aspects of a first year med student quite well. A must-read for anyone contemplating a career in medicine.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well written and insightful account of a unique experience, June 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: First Cut: A Season in the Human Anatomy Lab (Hardcover)

The author provides the reader with an opportunity to experience something unique and different -- human dissection.For those involved in medical education, the dissectioin experience is portrayed in a sensitive, insightful and accurate manner. The author's essays and illustrations of the dissections by Versalius provides a sensory of history and meaning that any health propfessions student about to take gross anatomy would find fscinating. This book is must reading for any first year medical student and should be on anyone's list who is concerned with the education of health professionals.