Patients and healers in the context of culture

by Arthur Kleinman

Patients and healers in the context of culture: an exploration of the borderland between anthropology, medicine, and psychiatry describes observations of clinical interviews between various medical practitioners, namely folk healers, temple medicine men, and Chinese style and Western style physicians, and their patients. It stresses the importance of adopting proper cultural perspectives, making one's interpretations within that framework, and relying on direct observation; and urges an integration of social and cultural methods into the routine training of doctors, so as to enable a more humane and appropriate clinical practice. Medical anthropology is rich with anecdote and description focused on one or another aspect of patients or diseases, practitioners or healing, symbolisms or religion. This book takes us beyond such details and provides an integrating theoretical framework, operational models, and a systematic methodology of study that will allow the clinician and investigator