Feeling Medicine

Honorable Mention, Sociology of the Body and Embodiment Best Publication Award, given by the Body and Embodiment Section of the American Sociological Association

The emotional and social components of teaching medical students to be good doctors

The pelvic exam is considered a fundamental procedure for medical students to learn; it is also often the one of the first times where medical students are required to touch a real human being in a professional manner. In Feeling Medicine, Kelly Underman gives us a look inside these gynecological teaching programs, showing how they embody the tension between scientific thought and human emotion in medical education.

Drawing on interviews with medical students, faculty, and the people who use their own bodies to teach this exam, Underman offers the first in-depth examination of this essential, but seldom discussed, aspect of medical education. Through studying, teaching, and learning about the pelvic exam, she contrasts the technical and emotional dimensions of learning to be a physician. Ultimately, Feeling Medicine explores what it means to be a good doctor in the twenty-first century, particularly in an era of corporatized healthcare.

Kelly Underman is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Drexel University. She is the author of Feeling Medicine: How the Pelvic Exam Shapes Medical Training.Kelly Underman is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Drexel University. She is the author of Feeling Medicine: How the Pelvic Exam Shapes Medical Training.

Rene Almeling, author of Sex Cells: The Medical Market for Eggs and Sperm:
Using the pelvic exam as a prism on medical education, Kelly Underman deftly analyzes how bodies and affect come together in the making of physicians. An excellent contribution to research on gender and medicine!

Laura Mamo, Author of Queering Reproduction:
Feeling Medicine brings its readers into the world of gynecological teaching assistants and medical education with care and theoretical depth. The prose is smooth, the content rich, and the substantive contribution a needed addition to scholarship on gender, bodies, and medicine.