Cantor David
Division of Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892-7309, USA.
J Hist Med Allied Sci. 2006 Jul;61(3):324-68. doi: 10.1093/jhmas/jrj048. Epub 2006 Mar 24.
Hope was central to cancer control in twentieth-century America. Physicians placed great store in its power to persuade people to seek medical help as early as possible in the development of the disease, when it was most amenable to treatment; to maintain patients' loyalty through what could be a long, painful and uncertain course of therapy; and to encourage doubts about alternative healers. Some also argued that hope could have beneficial therapeutic and psychological effects for patients. However, we know very little about its meanings for the public. Focusing on a large collection of letters written to the Food and Drug Administration in the 1950s concerning an anti-quackery campaign, this article explores how men and women responded to the competing messages of hope promoted by orthodox cancer organizations and by alternative healers. It asks: What did hope mean to such men and women? How did they construct this meaning? How did they decide which treatments were hopeful and which were not? And, how did they use hope to imagine the social world of cancer? In short, this article explores the vernacular meanings, epistemologies, and imaginative uses of hope among Americans in the mid-twentieth century.
在20世纪的美国，希望是癌症防治的核心要素。医生们极为看重希望的力量，它能说服人们在疾病发展的早期，也就是最适合治疗的时候尽早寻求医疗帮助；能在漫长、痛苦且充满不确定性的治疗过程中维系患者的忠诚度；还能引发人们对替代疗法从业者的质疑。一些人还认为，希望对患者可能具有有益的治疗和心理作用。然而，我们对希望对于公众而言意味着什么却知之甚少。本文聚焦于20世纪50年代人们写给食品药品管理局的大量信件，这些信件与一场反庸医运动有关，探讨了男性和女性如何回应正统癌症组织和替代疗法从业者所宣扬的相互矛盾的希望信息。它提出以下问题：希望对这些男性和女性意味着什么？他们如何构建这种意义？他们如何判断哪些治疗方法有希望，哪些没有？以及，他们如何借助希望来想象癌症的社会图景？简而言之，本文探讨了20世纪中叶美国人对希望的通俗意义、认识论及富有想象力的运用。
