Medicine as Culture Illness Disease and the Body in Western Societies 2nd Edition by Deborah Lupton ISBN 978-0761940302 0761940308

Medicine as Culture provides a broad overview on how medicine is perceived and constructed in western societies. The author carefully links the different theoretical perspectives informing scholarship and research directed towards understanding the socio-cultural dimensions of medicine, illness, and the body. Written in an accessible style, the author covers such salient issues as socio-theoretical and feminist perspectives of medicine, cultural representations of illness and disease, the language and visual imagery of medicine, and the development of the patient and power in the doctor-patient relationship. Integrating cultural studies, social theory, anthropology, feminist theories, and contemporary theories of the body, this volume is essential reading for students and scholars in sociology, medical anthropology, health communication, gender studies, cultural studies, and nursing. “This clearly written book is a tour de force. The author succeeds in providing an excellent overview of the way that medicine is experienced, perceived and socially constructed in Western societies. . . Certainly this is a book that many readers will find interesting, stimulating and extremely helpful.” –Health and Social Care in the Community “This is a valuable addition to the literature on health and illness and its cultural studies approach ensures that it complements the existing texts in the are. Beyond this, the book reveals just how significant matters of medicine, health and illness are to the functioning and understanding of Western societies.” –Sociology “This clearly written book is a tour de force. The author succeeds in providing an excellent overview of the way that medicine is experienced, perceived, and socially constructed in the Western societies. The most exciting part of this book is the chapter on power relations and the medical encounter. . . .It whets the appetite. …It is good to see a section on the power relationship between nurses and patients, an aspect of hospital life that is sometimes ignored. The author has managed to summarize theoretical perspectives and recent research studies clearly and simply encouraging the reader to search for other texts.” –Alison Chapple, BScSRN, Medical Sociology Unit, Dept. of