What IF Medicine Disappeared?

by Markle, Gerald E.

• ISBN13: 9780791473061
• ISBN10: 0791473066
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-01-01
• Publisher: STATE UNIV OF NEW YORK PRESS

Summary

In this thought-provoking book, sociologists Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea ask what would happen if Western medicine were to disappear. Using a rigorous and imaginative method-a thought experiment-Markle and McCrea evaluate medicine's impact on mortality and our national health. They examine various aspects of medicine, such as primary care, surgery, emergency medicine, pharmaceuticals, and mental illness treatment, and convincingly point out the problems that health care actually causes. Supporting their ideas with statistics and studies from medical and social science literature, Markle and McCrea argue that the medical model, despite its tremendous budget and hype, accomplishes far less than most would think. Their conclusions should promote critical review and lively discussion among medical consumers as well as among health care professionals and policy makers. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Gerald E. Markle is Professor of Sociology at Western Michigan University and the author of Meditations of a Holocaust Traveler, also published by SUNY Press Frances B. McCrea is Professor of Sociology at Grand Valley State University. Together, they are coauthors of Minutes to Midnight: Nuclear Weapons Protest in America

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Disappearance	p. 1
Primary Care	p. 21
Surgery	p. 43
Emergency Medicine	p. 65
Pharmaceuticals	p. 79
Mental Illness	p. 99
Mind-Body	p. 115
A World Without Medicine	p. 129
Alternative Medicine	p. 143
Thought Experiments	p. 147
Medicine and Mortality	p. 157
Notes	p. 165
Bibliography	p. 201
Index	p. 227
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