Health studies : a critical and cross-cultural reader / edited by Colin Samson.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Samson, Colin.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Health--Social aspects--Cross-cultural studies.

Health.

Social medicine--Cross-cultural studies.

Social medicine.

Medical anthropology--Cross-cultural studies.

Medical anthropology.

Health--Social aspects.

Genre:

Cross-cultural studies.

Physical Description:

xi, 377 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Malden, Mass. : Blackwell Publishers, 1999.

Summary:

This volume brings together key readings of significant moments in the understanding of health. It goes beyond the often superficial literature-review style of medical sociology texts. In doing so, this book presents a challenging array of classic and new material on the social basis of health, illness and healing.

The Reader incorporates many of the elements of the 'new' medical anthropology and sociology of health and illness. Each section of the book is introduced with an essay by the editor, providing a fresh perspective on topical and historical issues and setting out the core concerns of the authors whose work follows. In addition, the Reader is supported by guides to further reading. It provides students with an introduction to the field and a critical insight into current debates.

Contents:

Part I Biomedicine and the Body 1

1. 'Biomedicine and the Body' / Colin Samson 3

2. 'Spaces and Classes' / Michel Foucault 22

3. 'Natural Facts: A Historical Perspective on Science and Sexuality' / L. J. Jordanova 36

4. 'Artificiality and Enlightenment: From Sociobiology to Biosociality' / Paul Rabinow 50

Part II Disease and the Self 61

5. 'Disease and the Self' / Colin Samson 63

6. 'Human Contact in Life-Threatening Environments' / James J. Lynch 83

7. 'Cancer and the Self: How Illness Constellates Meaning' / Roger Levin 105

8. 'Illness as Metaphor' and 'AIDS and Its Metaphors' / Susan Sontag 133

9. 'Holistic Medicine' / Fred Frohock 150

Part III The Physician and the Patient 177

10. 'The Physician and the Patient' / Colin Samson 179

11. 'The Last Hippie' / Oliver Sacks 197

12. 'The Body as Territory and as Wonder' / Arthur W. Frank 220

13. 'Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and the Medical Encounter' / Lesley Cooper 227

14. 'A Fortunate Man' / John Berger 246

Part IV Creating Sickness 261

15. 'Creating Sickness' / Colin Samson 263

16. 'Results of Industrialisation' / Friedrich Engels 280

17. 'Rats' Tails and Trypanosomes: Nature and Culture in Early Colonial Medicine' / Megan Vaughan 294

18. 'Yuuyaraq: The Way of the Human Being' / Harold Napoleon 311

19. 'Nervoso: Medicine, Sickness, and Human Needs' / Nancy Scheper-Hughes 338.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0631201890

0631201904

OCLC:

40990274