Illness and culture in the postmodern age /

Morris compares the changing nature of illness in the postmodern age with the disease focus of the preceding 50 years. He describes current limitations of the mechanistic, reductionist focus of a biomedical model that served well in the past but cannot meet the demands of the postmodern era. A more complex medical vision than that of a malfunctioning machine is needed to fit the postmodern experience of illness, a fundamentally biocultural phenomenon, which can best be understood by recognizing the convergence between biology and culture. Morris provides a deeper understanding of the need for medicine to encompass mind, body, emotions, and spirit; reorient its focus to thinking about health; and use a vast new array of effective treatments outside the realm of traditional biomedical methods. Biocultural dimensions of illness are exemplified by the modifying influences of cultural forces on such personal experiences as pain, suffering, disability, and aging and the continuous interaction of biology and culture in subjective manifestations of chronic illnesses that last for decades. A fascinating view of why and how we experience illness differently and a convincing description of biocultural ways of being sick. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. A. Woodtli; University of Arizona