The history of Western medicine chronicles a tension between ideologies of patient care—the holistic Hippocratic view and the specialization view, with a depersonalization of the patient that coincides with the rise of pathologic anatomy in the early modern era.
Humor studies have traditionally lived in the rather unfunny world of philosophy departments. Thankfully, psychologists and neuroscientists study mechanisms of humor and laughter, too.
AMA J Ethics. 2020;22(7):E602-607. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2020.602.