Main description:

The humanities in higher education are too often labeled as impractical and are not usually valued in today's marketplace. Yet in professional fields, such as the health sciences, interest in what the humanities can offer has increased. Advocates claim the humanities offer health care professionals greater insight into how to work with those who need their help.

Illness and Image introduces undergraduates and professionals to the medical humanities, using a series of case studies, beginning with debates about male circumcision from the ancient world to the present, to the meanings of authenticity in the face transplantation arena. The case studies address the interpretation of mental illness as a disability and the "new" category of mental illness, "self-harm." Sander L. Gilman shows how medicine projects such categories' existence into the historical past to show that they are not bound in time and space and, therefore, are "real."

Illness and Image provides students and researchers with models and possible questions regarding categories often assumed to be either trans-historical or objective, making it useful as a textbook.

Contents:

List of Figures

Introduction: The Medical Humanities Today

The Case Studies:

Case One: Circumcision: Religion and Health
Case Two: Face Transplants: Authentic Faces?
Case Three: Posture and Health
Case Four: Obesity across Cultures
Case Five: Seeing Pain
Case Six: Madness as a Disability
Case Seven: Self-Harm and Mental Illness
Case Eight: Genes and Race
Case Nine: Death: The Final Case

Index