What's Behind The Symptom?: On Psychiatric Observation and Anthropological Understanding

by Angel Martinez-Hernaez

Overview

This book addresses the traditional perception of symptoms and whether they are physical signs of illness or symbolic and cultural forms of expression. The research presented here examines contemporary psychiatric knowledge, medical anthropology, and the fields of psychiatry/psychology to find answers regarding the interpretation of symptoms. This book also offers critical analyses of Freud, Kraepelin, Foucault, Barthes and Peirce, among others, as part of its critical framework.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789057026126
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/06/2000
Series:	Theory and Practice in Medical Anthropology and International Health Ser. , #6
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

What Is Behind the Symptom. On Psychiatric Observation The Dream of Biomedical Psychiatry. Kraepelin Versus Freud: A Retrospective. Neo-Kraepelinism (I): Nosologies. Neo-Kraepelinism (II): Epidemiologies. The Limits of Psychiatric Observation. and Anthropological Understanding. Toward an Anthropology of Symptoms (I): Four Pre-interpretive Approaches. Toward an Anthropology of Symptoms (II): Hermeneutics and Politics. Semiotic Incursions. Ethnographic Interpretations: Symptoms, Symbols, and Small Worlds. The Limits of Ethnographic Interpretations.