Pulse en una miniatura para ir a Google Books.
|
Cargando... This Mortal Coil: The Human Body in History and Culturepor Fay Bound Alberti
Ninguno Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro.   ) matthewgray | May 7, 2018 |  This volume works on several levels and could, I think, be of interest to a reader on any or all of them. One overarching theme is the lamentation over the loss of the treatment of the whole body, indeed the whole person, because of today's (over?)emphasis on specialization. Alberti stops short of actually wanting to go back to those days, without all of the knowledge the specializations have provided, but certainly wants to find a way to treat the entire patient through a more coordinated use of specialists. It is not really the scope of this work to attempt to figure the logistics for such a system but such a desire is strong. Changes in how and why we perceive our bodies differently are presented in chapters that are, well, specialized for lack of a better way of saying it. Each chapter is about an organ (or the system associated with an organ) and through cultural and medical examples we are presented with how things have changed. The example I think everyone knows and understands to some extent is the shift from the heart as the location of our "soul" or identity to our brain (or mind) as the seat. While some phrases remain in popular discourse, such as feeling love in the heart, we know now that that is not the case. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in the study of the body in society or culture (a field that has been active for well over 50 years, not just the past 20) as well as those interested in the pathology of the body as it is often portrayed in popular culture. This book is academic in topic but written for a general audience with a minimal amount of jargon or complex theory. Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. (  ) pomo58 | Apr 20, 2017 | sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
Premios
"Hamlet's "mortal coil" - which eventually and inevitably we "shuffle off" when we enter the sleep of death, as he puts it - has never been static. Indeed how the human body and its component parts have been understood, individually and collectively, has shifted across time, shaped by culture, religion, and technology. In this probing and provocative new book, Fay Bound Alberti uses the global histories of medicine, pathology, and emotions to explore these changing notions. Each chapter uses a different focus - bones, skin, sexual organs, spine, tongue, heart - revealing how each body part connects to a peculiarly Western notion of expertise, one which appropriates one element from the others and ignores their interconnection. The themes examined in This Mortal Coil - the nature of identity, the relationship between the brain and the heart, and the gendering of our physical and emotional selves - are enduring ones, but perceptions of the "perfect body" or "perfect health" evolve constantly. Moving between the surface and what lies beneath, Alberti provides a rich and fascinating accounting of each part, shedding light on the role scientific developments - from medical care to plastic surgery to cloning - plays in how we look at ourselves. Written with insight and narrative verve, Alberti's provocative book reveals how the mortal coil can be unwound, and looked at as if for the first time"-- No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
Debates activosNingunoCubiertas populares 
 Google Books — Cargando...GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)128.6Philosophy and Psychology Philosophy Of Humanity The Human Condition BodyClasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio: (4.25)
¿Eres tú?Conviértete en un Autor de LibraryThing. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1