Medicine and Culture

Front Cover
Macmillan, 1996 M11 15 - 204 pages

A classic comparative study of medicine and national culture, Medicine and Culture shows us that while doctors regard themselves as servants of science, they are often prisoners of custom.

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Contents

Is Medicine International?
15
Culture Bias in Medical Science
23
France Cartesian Thinking and the Terrain
35
West Germany The Lingering Influences of Romanticism
74
Great Britain Economy Empiricism and Keeping the Upper Lip Stiff
101
United States The Virus in the Machine
124
Plus Ça Change
153
Notes
157
Acknowledgments
193
Index
195
Copyright

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Page xxiii - ... percent of all contemporary clinical interventions are supported by objective scientific evidence that they do more good than harm. On the other hand, between 40 and 60 percent of all therapeutic benefits can be attributed to a combination of the placebo and Hawthorne effects, two code words for caring and concern, or what most people call "love.

About the author (1996)

Lynn Payer, a former editor for the New York Times Good Health magazine, writes extensively about medical issues for doctors as well as for the general public. She lives in New York City.

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