Prerna’s Reviews > The History of Sexuality, Volume 3: The Care of the Self > Status Update

Galen the doctor?

Yes! Galen the doctor.

I guess you might not have heard of him before because he has been dead for a while and isn't giving interviews ? 😉

I am curious that he crops up in a history of sexuality, I thought he was famous for dissecting apes and his knowledge of the inside of the mammalian body?

Yes, so much is Galen's fault!

Despite reading a lot of popular history beforehand and growing up in a Western country, I'm not sure I'd heard of him (and certainly didn't know his impact) before I did the history of medicine module at GCSE, i.e. something unusually specialist for that age and containing info a lot of people never hear full stop. I agree he is probably not as widely discussed as he ought to be given his influence.

Lol.

Apparently, Galen wrote about curing the 'passions', aphrodisia, division of the sexes, etc etc. You know, all the normal things the Greeks seemed to obsess over.

And Anto, thanks! I was beginning to worry that I am particularly ignorant. I've been looking him up on the internet and there's so much on him and he wrote so extensively, I don't know why he isn't more popular. What interests me the most though, is his opposition to the Stoics which also Foucault writes about in this book.

For some reason there is very little detailed popular history of premodern medicine - although in the last 10-15 years there has been loads of decent history published on other areas. Perhaps there will be some in the next few years - the pandemic may revive interest in history of medicine more generally once there are enough books about epidemic disease specifically.

I am just finishing a book on Stoicism and there is no mention of Galen in it either.

Yes, first of all, there are very few popular history books on medicine to begin with. And then the few books that are relatively popular don't go very further back.

I just realised, I haven't read a single book on the history of medicine nor can I recall even the name of one I've heard of. I mean, it's a dry subject but I ought to know better. Especially given our current circumstances.

And books dealing with stoicism rarely contain criticism of stoicism. Not sure about the one you're reading though. Will keep an eye out for your review!

I wouldn't particularly recommend this Stoicism book. I agree with Darwin8u's review. A lot of it is popular self-help type content and there are too many examples from the author's (Massimo Pigliucci's) jet-setting western life.

The self-help stoicism books are the worst!