Soaking up the rays light therapy and visual culture in Britain, c. 1890-1940
Soaking up the rays forges a new path for exploring Britain's fickle love of the light by investigating the beginnings of light therapy in the country from c.1890-1940. Despite rapidly becoming a leading treatment for tuberculosis, rickets and other infections and skin diseases, light therapy w...
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
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Manchester
Manchester University Press
2017, 2017
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| Collection: | National Center for Biotechnology Information - Collection details see MPG.ReNa |
| Summary: | Soaking up the rays forges a new path for exploring Britain's fickle love of the light by investigating the beginnings of light therapy in the country from c.1890-1940. Despite rapidly becoming a leading treatment for tuberculosis, rickets and other infections and skin diseases, light therapy was a contentious medical practice. Bodily exposure to light, whether for therapeutic or aesthetic ends, persists as a contested subject to this day: recommended to counter skin conditions as well as Seasonal Affective Disorder and depression; closely linked to notions of beauty, happiness and well-being, fuelling tourism abroad and the tanning industry at home; and yet with repeated health warnings that it is a dangerous carcinogen. By analysing archival photographs, illustrated medical texts, advertisements, lamps, and goggles and their visual representation of how light acted upon the body, Woloshyn assesses their complicated contribution to the founding of light therapy |
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| Physical Description: | xiii, 273 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates illustrations (some color) 25 cm |
| ISBN: | 1784995126 9781784995126 9781526115980 |