A Diagnosis for Our Times
Subtitle: Alternative Health, from Lifeworld to Politics (Suny Series in Sociology of Culture)
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: May 2003
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 224
ISBN-13: 9780791457313
Subjects: Complementary Medicine; Social medicine; Health Care Delivery; Social Science; Medical / Nursing; Sociology; Sociology - General; Anthropology - Cultural; Alternative Medicine
Description: "Despite having one of the most advanced systems of medicine in the world, American consumers are increasingly turning to alternative medicine. Through a study of two alternative health networks, on "New Age" and the other conservative Christian, A Diagnosis for Our Times examines the health regimes followed by clients of alternative practitioners, the way people find meaning in non-Western and pre-modern health traditions, and the relationship between alternative health and other movements for change. In sharp contrast with other work on this subject, this book characterizes alternative health as a social movement and a "cultural laboratory" where people discover new values and new ways of living that may have larger implications. The authors discover surprising commonalities between the cultural left and the religious right when it comes to healthcare, and the evaluate the potential of alternative health to contribute to a new healthcare paradigm."--BOOK JACKET.