Our Present Complaint: American Medicine, Then and Now (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780801887161)

Charles E. Rosenberg, one of the world's most influential historians of medicine, presents a fascinating analysis of the current tensions in American medicine. Situating these tensions within their historical and social contexts, Rosenberg investigates the fundamental characteristics of medicine: how we think about disease, how the medical profession thinks about itself and its moral and intellectual responsibilities, and what prospective patients-all of us-expect from medicine and the medical profession. He explores the nature and definition of disease and how ideas of disease causation reflect social values and cultural negotiations. His analyses of alternative medicine and bioethics consider the historically specific ways in which we define and seek to control what is appropriately medical. At a time when clinical care and biomedical research generate as much angst as they offer cures, this volume provides valuable insight into how the practice of medicine has evolved, where it is going, and how lessons from history can improve its prognosis.

Author: Charles E. Rosenberg
ISBN-10: 080188716X
ISBN-13: 9780801887161
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Language: English
Published: 11/01/2007
Pages: 224
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.68lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.56w x 0.57d