Mudpacks and prozac
Subtitle: experiencing Ayurvedic, biomedical, and religious healing
By: Murphy Halliburton.
Publisher: Left Coast Press; Routledge
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Walnut Creek, CA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 232
ISBN-13: 9781598743982; 9781598743999
Subjects: Traditional medicine -- India -- Kerala; Cultural psychiatry -- India -- Kerala; Medicine, Ayurvedic -- India -- Kerala; Healing -- Social aspects -- India -- Kerala; Human mechanics -- India -- Kerala; Kerala (India) -- Social life and customs
Description: "People seeking psychiatric healing choose from an almost dizzying array of therapies - from the medicated mudpacks of Ayurveda, to the pharmacopeia of western biomedicine, to the spiritual pathways of the world's religions. How do we choose, what do the treatments offer, and how do they cure?" "In Mudpacks and Prozac, Murphy Halliburton investigates the very different ways in which western, Ayurvedic, and religious (Christian, Muslim, and Hindu) healing systems define psychiatric problems and cures. He describes people's embodied experiences of therapies that range from soothing to frightening and explores how enduring pleasure or pain affects healing. And through evocative portraits of patients in Kerala, India - a place of incredible cultural diversity that has become a Mecca for alternative medicine - Halliburton shows how sociopolitical changes around the globe may be limiting the ways in which people seek and experience health care, with negative effects on our quality of health and quality of life."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.