Customer Reviews

Social Suffering

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There are still people in this world who listen: anthropologists. After reading less than humble authors who are certain they have most if not all the answers, I found this volume to be a delight. The fifteen articles in this book, each concerning individuals and groups in a particular cultural/historical setting, address the phenomenon of "social suffering". While the dominant American cultural construct holds that virtually every experience is individual, these authors establish that life is, after all, social and individual, and much suffering (another unpopular topic) is created, experienced and coped with socially. The first chapter, by Arthur Kleinman and Joan Kleinman, is alone worth the price of the book. After discussing how we Americans present to ourselves and react to news of dire suffering, usually discretly presented without context and with no way to respond, the authors write, "The American cultural rhetoric ... is changing from the language of caring to the language of efficiency and cost ...." Other essays address Mao's China, modern India, Nazi medicine, terror in Sri Lanka and torture. Paul Farmer's essay regarding the lives of two of Haiti's destitute is particularly unnerving. Some of the essays require close reading, but they are well worth the effort. This is a book that will leave you with a broader and deeper perspective.