Medicine as Culture: Illness, Disease and the Body in Western Societies

by Deborah Lupton

Deborah Lupton provides a broad overview of the way medicine is experienced, perceived and socially constructed in western societies. She cogently links the different theoretical perspectives informing scholarship and research directed towards understanding the socio-cultural dimensions of medicine, illness and the body at the end of the twentieth century. Key topics examined socio-theoretical and feminist perspectives of medicine; cultural representations of illness and disease; the language and visual imagery of medicine, illness and disease; and the development of the `patient′ and relations of power in the doctor-patient relationship.

Genres: Sociology, Anthropology, Health, Medicine, Nonfiction, Health Care, Science

192 pages, Hardcover

First published May 11, 1994

Reviews

[Rin]

Not exactly the kind of book of medicine and culture I was looking for. While a tad insightful, the book talks about things in the sterile, pretentious way that sociologists do. As though they are somehow biased and scientific by using academic words. Honestly, this book screams "Tumblr" to me. It's one of those books that, if somehow exposed to social media culture, would be used as the pseudo-academecian's bible. That's not to discredit anything written, but it's just to tell you the type of book it is.

I was looking for a book that was more comparative in nature. I think I could have stomached the sterile criticisms then. However, even then, I don't think I'd be able to stand the pretentious nitpicking of a system that has kept millions of people alive. I don't exactly understand what the aim was. To talk about western medical researchers, healthcare allies and patients like zoo animals? I dunno. I wish it were more flowery and less like a dissertation or something else that only a professor could love.

I clearly didn't enjoy this book.


I also want to add that I read the third addition which was published in 2012.

[Tracie Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was good, but not as in-depth as I would've liked. Still a decent introduction to this kind of thought.

[Bay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Impressive research - Lupton weaves together multiple understandings of health, illness, and medicine from diverse disciplines. Read for my Rhetoric of Health & Medicine class.