Writing at the Margin: Discourse Between Anthropology and Medicine

Kleinman (anthropology and social medicine, Harvard U.) has revised seven previously published essays and framed them with a new introduction and final chapter. Three explain the principles of what he calls a sociosomatic approach to medicine that considers the body as a mediator between individual and collective experience. The others apply the ideas to his work with the effects of China's Cultural Revolution, involuntary abortion, and other cases. The final chapter urges others to enter medical anthropology, where there is still plenty of elbow room. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.