Presents a framework for studying the relationship between medicine, psychiatry, and culture. This book contains a dialectical tension between two reciprocally related orientations: it is both a cross-cultural perspective on the components of clinical care and a clinical perspective on anthropological studies of medicine and psychiatry.
From one of America's most celebrated psychiatrists, the book that has taught us why healing the sick is about more than just diagnosing their illnesses
"When Dr. Arthur Kleinman, an eminent Harvard psychiatrist and social anthropologist, began caring for his wife, Joan, after she was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, he found just how far the act of caregiving extended beyond the boundaries of medicine. In The Soul of Care: The Moral Education of a Husband and a Doctor, Kleinman delivers a deeply humane and inspiring story of his life in medicine and his marriage to Joan, and he describes the practical, emotional and moral aspects of caretaking. He also writes about the problems our society faces as medical technology advances and the cost of health care soars but caring for patients no longer seems important. Caregiving is long, hard, unglamorous work--at moments joyous, more often tedious, sometimes agonizing, but it is always rich in meaning. In the face of our current political indifference and the challenge to the health care system, he emphasizes how we must ask uncomfortable questions of ourselves, and of our doctors. To give care, to be "present" for someone who needs us, and to feel and show kindness are deep emotional and moral experiences, enactments of our core values, and at the heart of our professional and family relationships. The practice of caregiving teaches us what is most important in life."--Page [2] of cover
Focusing on the social causes of individual suffering, this book challenges the dispassionate stance often found in anthropology and sociology. Authors Iain Wilkinson and Arthur Kleinman advocate for integrating compassion and caregiving into social science, aiming to create a moral framework against indifference. They critique the coldness of academic approaches and propose a more engaged, humane understanding of society. This thought-provoking work serves as both a guide and a call to action, urging a compassionate response to global suffering and injustice.
Investigates the emotional and moral lives of the Chinese people as they adjust to the challenges of modernity. Sharing a medical anthropology and cultural psychiatry perspective, this title delves into intimate and sometimes hidden areas of personal life and social practice to observe and narrate the drama of Chinese individualization.