MUDPACKS AND PROZAC: EXPERIENCING AYURVEDIC, BIOMEDICAL, AND RELIGIOUS HEALING [Paperback]

Murphy Halliburton (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1598743996 | ISBN-13: 978-1598743999 | Publication Date: August 31, 2009 | Edition: 1

People seeking psychiatric healing choose from an almost dizzying array of therapies—from the medicated mud packs of Ayurveda, to the pharmacopeia of Western biomedicine, to the spiritual pathways of the world's religions. How do we choose, what do the treatments offer, and how do they cure? In Mudpacks and Prozac, Murphy Halliburton investigates the very different ways in which Ayurvedic, Western, and religious (Christian, Muslim, and Hindu) healing systems define psychiatric problems and cures. He describes people's embodied experiences of therapies that range from soothing to frightening, and explores how enduring pleasure or pain affects healing. And through evocative portraits of patients in Kerala, India—a place of incredible cultural diversity that has become a Mecca for alternative medicine—Halliburton shows how sociopolitical changes around the globe may be limiting the ways in which people seek and experience health care, with negative effects on our quality of health and quality of life.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Mud Packs and Prozac is a fascinating comparative analysis of how patients choose and how they experience the therapies of Western biomedical, Ayurvedic, and religious healing systems. Foregrounding questions of embodiment and aesthetics, Murphy Halliburton challenges our understandings of mental illness and of the transformative processes typically evaluated as “cure.”

About the Author

Murphy Halliburton is a tenured assistant professor in the Graduate Center and Department of Anthropology, Queens College CUNY. He has published in leading journals including American Anthropologist, Transcultural Psychiatry, Global Public Health, and Medical Anthropology.

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: Left Coast Press; 1 edition (August 31, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1598743996
• ISBN-13: 978-1598743999
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #806,089 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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