The meaning of the paradox “culture of no culture” as Janelle Taylor describes in simple terms, is that biomedicine has a culture of considering itself as having no culture or not- culture bound (Taylor 2003). Biomedicine implies one metaphor of “body as a machine” i.e. when something is wrong in the body, they can repair it by using drugs or technologies (Groark 2017). It does not pay attention to cultural components that might have influenced the causes of the disease. Biomedicine analyses the disease from outsider’s perspectives, which means that biomedicine focuses on structural approach to disease rather than its meaning. In other words, it sees disease without understanding its meaning or significance for a culture (Groark 2017). Biomedicine …show more content…
Biomedicine applies ‘hidden curriculum’ to transform what the patients narrate into the ways that the physicians can categorize into a medical disease. Thus, as long as feature of hidden curriculum is present in biomedicine, it will continue to reconstruct itself as “culture of no culture” (Taylor 2003). As Kleinman argues that western biomedicine undergoes the process of medicalization, it neglects the cultural aspects of the patient’s illness experience. As defined by Kleinman, medicalization is the process of interpreting the forms of human misery as health problem. The example of ‘depressive disorder’ as Kleinman gives help us to understand this paradox as the process in which the suffering of the patient is reinterpreted as a depressive disease and is tried to fixed using antidepressant medications, neglecting the existing illness experience of the patient and their family. Thus, in my understanding medicalization is the process through which a non-medical problem is identified and treated as a medical problem. Thus western biomedicine, which is observed as “culture of no culture”, can be understood as a reductionist approach that limits the patient’s illness experience to complex physical disorders so that it can be cured through medicine, therapy or hospitalization (Kleinman,
Ross defines and differentiates between the terms healing and curing. She recognizes the fact that healing and curing are very intertwined and it can be hard to distinguish between the two terms. There are differences between the definitions in scholarly and general settings. She references an ethnographic study of healing versus curing conducted by anthropologists Andrew Strathern and Pamela Stewart in 1999 with native groups in New Guinea. The results of the study looked at how energy used by the different types of tribal healers to either cure or heal a patient. Eastern medicine focuses on how energy interacts with the healing process in connection within the mind. Whereas Western medicine is focused on the mind and the body separately. The practice is considered a holistic approach to finding cures. According to Ross (2013), healing is more a therapeutic process targeting the whole body and specific illness including emotional, mental, and social aspects in the treatment. The act of curing is a pragmatic approach that focuses on removing the problem all together. The life experiences of a person playing into how well certain treatments will heal or cure what is ailing them. These aspects can not be defined with textbook definitions. The interaction that the healing process has with energy is a variable in the success rate. Uncontrolled emotions can have a greater impact on the inside the body than a person can realize. The exploration of energy interaction within the body can be used for greater analysis of health care systems. (21-22). Are Western healthcare facilities purposely “curing” patients just so that they return are few years later? Is Western Medicine built upon a negative feedback loop? The terminolo...
In the book The Spirit Catches you and you Fall Down, ethnocentrism can also be seen. Throughout the book the family and the doctors have different ideas of medicine/healing techniques are often disagreed on. It’s important for the doctor to see that biomedicine has its own intentions of saving patient through standard procedures and beliefs. Understanding those terms will shed some light on the culture of the patient, which has their own intentions, beliefs, and rules as well. Breaking down ethnocentrism to find an agreement is a good goal to accomplish in order have successful prognosis and healing. In addition, shedding the ethnocentrism will allow the doctors to see the different cultural beliefs and not judge right away. Although, some cultural remedies may not always work, it’s wrong for people to have the mindset of ethnocentrism without even considering their beliefs first.
Kleinman, A. 1980. Patients and Healers in the Context of Culture: An Exploration of the Borderland between Anthropology, Medicine, and Psychiatry. University of California Press.
Culture is a collection of religion, traditions, and beliefs that are passed down from generation to generation. Culture is created and maintained through the repetition of stories and behavior. It is never definite because it is continuously being modified to match current trends, however, historical principles are still relevant. With respect to mental illness, culture is crucial to how people choose to deal with society and the methods used to diagnose and cope with mental illnesses. In Watters’ The Mega-Marketing Depression of Japan, he focuses on how Japan and other cultures define depression, but also displays how the influence of American treatments in eastern countries eventually becomes the international standards. Even though the
In the article “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” By Horace Miner, there are a few points that he is trying to put across. Firstly, it is sometimes difficult to collect accurate information about a culture when you do not belong to it. Not everything will be explained in great detail, which forces a person to make assumptions about what they are being shown or what they are hearing. Secondly, Americans seem to always believe everything that they are told from doctors because they have been highly respected for many generations and people learn from when they are very young that when they are sick, they must go see the doctor to feel well again. Lastly, People always believe that they cannot heal without medicine because doctors have been making people believe that medicine is the key to healing for many years.
In this essay I will be addressing the argument if there is a collision of “two cultures” in this book. I will look at the fact the Hmong people have their own medical practices that is completely different from the western medicine practices. I will look at the fact that the Hmong and the doctors did not communicate well and that it’s hard for those people of different cultures to understand one another.
In sociological terms Medicalization can be defines in various ways. Medicalization is known to be a condition or behavior becomes defined as a medical problem requiring a medical solution (Weitz, 2012, P. 106). Another definition of how Medicalization can be defined is by a non-medical problematic concern and putting it into medical terms, from an illness or a
Peter Conrad’s book, The Medicalization of Society: On the Transformation of Human Conditions into Treatable Disorders, examined several cases of human conditions, once viewed as normal, now considered as medical issues. Conrad defined this transition of human problems to disorders that are medically defined, studied, diagnosed and treated as “medicalization”. Specifically, Conrad discussed certain conditions, such as adult ADHD, as age related phenomena that have been medicalized. Throughout, Conrad demonstrated how these issues became medically defined because of the current research and financing structure of medicine in the United States. Those newly defined illnesses changed people’s perceptions and expectations of health and old age, thus dramatically altering society’s expectations of medicine and subsequent life quality. Conrad’s ethnography is a good example of the ethnomedical approach to medical anthropology that addressed several health conditions that are prominent in the United States. He culminated his book by arguing medicalization primarily serves as a form of social control, solving problems with individuals and not society. While the book clearly explained a wide range of negative causes and effects of medicalization, Conrad only acknowledged a few examples of successful resistance briefly in his last chapter. In order to empower its readers beyond education, the book should have examined these instances of anti-medicalization to find similarities and derive productive countermeasures for individuals to follow. Conrad thoroughly outlined the history, examples and influencing factors that promote medicalization, but failed to offer any combative solution to the resulting problems of medicalization.
In today’s society there are many words that are used or said without giving it complete thought. For example, the word “identity” is something to which I have never really given much thought or even considered how I identify myself.
In conclusion, this critique has critically examined the view that medicine is a form of social control. Discussing the views of theorists such as Talcott Parsons, Ivan Illich, Narvarro, Irving Zola and Foucault. These theorists have views about how dominating medicine can be in society, the power of the professionals and medicalisation how it refers social problems into medical problems. Throughout this critique, it has been made clear that medicine is a form of social control.
Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said, “The only thing that is constant is change.” Throughout the span of our lives, we constantly see change occur in the world around us. As human beings, we tend to reject the idea of change; we disfavor the idea of someone or something coming into our lives and disrupting our way of living. Because of this, we create boundaries that separate ourselves from those that we deem to be “different.” This process of thinking often leads to situations where we create a type of “us versus them” ordeal, where one group of people sees themselves as superior to the other. Creating boundaries between different groups of people is not a concept we are unfamiliar with, there have been countless examples of it throughout history, such as the Holocaust or the battle over slavery; we can also see ethnic boundaries forming today within education systems and things like the Black Lives Matter movement. The
The reasons for the illness are not at the centre of the biomedical model. The biomedical model also receives the majority of government healthcare funding (over 90%). Furthermore, the biomedical model of health has been dominant for many years and played a large role in prolonging life expectancy, bio-living or living organisms and also played a role in medical science of diagnosing and treating disease. It is a community approach to prevent diseases and illnesses.
Culture has a variety of meanings in our daily lives. Culture is defined as objects created by a society as well as the ways of thinking, acting, and behaving in a society (Macionis). Culture has a variety of elements that is important in understand. To grasp culture, we must consider both thoughts and things. Culture shapes not only what we do, but also what we think and how we feel.
The concept of localism comprises a reorientation in medical theory and practice. Practitioners began to replace the holistic emphasis on the humoral balance of bodily fluids in relation to lifestyle with a focus on pathological aetiology. The basis of this shift to ‘scientific medicine’ is critically underpinned by important political and socioeconomic changes occurring at this time. The resulting improvements in the understanding and treatment of illnesses were mirrored by a shift in the balance of power between patient and practitioner. Localism was the mechanism which enabled these advances and is therefore of fundamental importance in understanding the history of medicine.
Cultural Appropriation versus Multiculturalism In today's society, there are many different cultures that individuals identify with. Culture is very important to many people and is something that helps define who we are. When different cultures are respected and appreciated, it is a beautiful thing, it can bring individuals in society closer to one another. Ideally, this understanding of one another’s cultures can lead to multiculturalism.