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Evolution of Sickness and Healing is a theoretical work on the grand scale, an original synthesis of many disciplines in social studies of medicine. Looking at human sickness and healing through the lens of evolutionary theory, Horacio Fàbrega, Jr. presents not only the vulnerability to disease and injury but also the need to show and communicate sickness and to seek and provide healing as innate biological traits grounded in evolution. This linking of sickness and healing, as inseparable facets of a unique human adaptation developed during the evolution of the hominid line, offers a new vantage point from which to examine the institution of medicine. To show how this complex, integrated ad...
Examining "mental illness" in societies where different world views, thought worlds, and hat patterns prevail is ordinarily frowned by social scientists since it involves analysis of phenomena steeped in modern conventions of knowledge. This book contravenes this position giving reasons for and ways of circumventing social science scruples. It formulates and provides details about the systems of healing of conditions of psychiatric interest that would have been found in ancient traditional and early modern period. It Draws on the findings of Indian epidemiologists who have surveyed the prevalence and distribution of psychiatric disorders in modern and traditional settings of contemporary Ind...
What are the origins of human psychopathology? Is mental illness a relatively recent phenomenon, or has it been with us throughout evolution? In Origins of Psychopathology, Horacio Fárega Jr. employs principles of evolutionary biology to better understand the significance of mental illness. He explores whether what psychiatry has categorized as mental disorders could have existed during earlier phases of human evolution. Fábrega approaches the prominent features of mental disorders as adaptive responses to the environment and life's circumstances, which in turn can only be understood in the context of our evolutionary past. Taking his cue from theoretical issues raised by research into pri...
It is generally recognized today that the United States has a need to contri bute to the improvement of health throughout the world. The need stems from the interrelationships that exist between the health of Americans and the health status of the rest of the people on "Spaceship Earth." Disease does not respect national boundaries, and the frequency of travel and trade between countries increases each year. It further relates to the opportunities found in international settings to help solve health problems more effec tively and efficiently. This includes the unique human resources that are found throughout the world as well as certain natural ecological conditions that cannot be duplicated in the United States. The United States also has a responsibility to contribute to improved health status. Our tradition of humanitarianism alone supports such a re sponsibility, but our comparative wealth of technical and financial re sources dictates a requirement to participate. Modern political realities de fine relationships between developed and developing countries that will not allow us to isolate ourselves from the compelling health needs of a majority of the world's population.
Within the past two decades, there has been an increased interest in the study of culture and mental health relationships. This interest has extended across many academic and professional disciplines, including anthropology, psychology, sociology, psychiatry, public health and social work, and has resulted in many books and scientific papers emphasizing the role of sociocultural factors in the etiology, epidemiology, manifestation and treatment of mental disorders. It is now evident that sociocultural variables are inextricably linked to all aspects of both normal and abnormal human behavior. But, in spite of the massive accumulation of data regarding culture and mental health relationships,...
Evolution of Sickness and Healing is a theoretical work on the grand scale, an original synthesis of many disciplines in social studies of medicine. Looking at human sickness and healing through the lens of evolutionary theory, Horacio Fàbrega, Jr. presents not only the vulnerability to disease and injury but also the need to show and communicate sickness and to seek and provide healing as innate biological traits grounded in evolution. This linking of sickness and healing, as inseparable facets of a unique human adaptation developed during the evolution of the hominid line, offers a new vantage point from which to examine the institution of medicine. To show how this complex, integrated ad...
This book provides an overview of the strengths and limitations of the currently available systems for the diagnosis and classification of mental disorders, in particular the DSM-IV and the ICD-10, and of the prospects for future developments. Among the covered issues are: * The impact of biological research * The diagnosis of mental disorders in primary care * The usefulness and limitations of the concept of comorbidity in psychiatry * The role of understanding and empathy in the diagnostic process * The ethical, legal and social aspects of psychiatric classification Psychiatric Diagnosis & Classification provides a comprehensive picture of the current state of available diagnostic and classificatory systems in psychiatry and the improvements that are needed.
Why would anyone seek out the very experience the rest of us most wish to avoid? Why would religious worshipers flog or crucify themselves, sleep on spikes, hang suspended by their flesh, or walk for miles through scorching deserts with bare and bloodied feet? In this insightful new book, Ariel Glucklich argues that the experience of ritual pain, far from being a form of a madness or superstition, contains a hidden rationality and can bring about a profound transformation of the consciousness and identity of the spiritual seeker. Steering a course between purely cultural and purely biological explanations, Glucklich approaches sacred pain from the perspective of the practitioner to fully exa...
like other collections of papers related to a single topic, this volume arose out of problem-sharing and problem-solving discussions among some of the authors. The two principal recurring issues were (1) the difficulties in translating anthropo logical knowledge so that our students could use it and (2) the difficulties of bringing existing medical anthropology literature to bear on this task. As we talked to other anthropologists teaching in other parts of the country and in various health-related schools, we recognized that our problems were similar. Similarities in our solutions led the Editors to believe that publication of our teaching experi ences and research relevant to teaching woul...
Ranging in time and locale, these essays, which combine theoretical argument with empirical observation, are based on research in historical and cultural settings. The contributors accept the notion that all knowledge is socially and culturally constructed and examine the contexts in which that knowledge is produced and practiced in medicine, psychiatry, epidemiology, and anthropology. -- from publisher description.