Suburban Shaman

tales from medicine's frontline

Nonfiction, Health & Well Being, Medical, Patient Care, Physician & Patient, Family & Relationships, Biography & Memoir
Cover of the book Suburban Shaman by Cecil Helman, Hammersmith Books Limited
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Cecil Helman ISBN: 9781781610183
Publisher: Hammersmith Books Limited Publication: May 22, 2014
Imprint: Hammersmith Health Books Language: English
Author: Cecil Helman
ISBN: 9781781610183
Publisher: Hammersmith Books Limited
Publication: May 22, 2014
Imprint: Hammersmith Health Books
Language: English

Medicine is not just about science. It's also all about stories, and about the mingling of narratives among doctors, and between them and their patients.' So writes Cecil Helman after 27 years as a family practitioner in and around London interlaced with training and research as a medical anthropologist, comparing a wide variety of medical systems and other forms of healing. This unique combination of frontline health worker and detached academic informs the many stories that make up this fascinating book. It also informs the author's insights into what human suffering can teach us about ourselves and our own attitudes to health and illness, whether we are deliverers or recipients of health care. With insight and compassion, Dr Helman's stories take the reader on a journey from apartheid South Africa, where he did his medical training, to the London of the early 1970s, where for a short time he foreswore medicine to become an anthropologist and poet; from ship's doctor on a Mediterranean cruise to family practitioner in London; from observing curative trance dances in the favelas of Brazil to interviewing sangomas in South Africa. While trained in the Western tradition and with many years of practice in that system, Dr Helman's anthropological insight leads him to view illness in a wider personal, social and cultural context, considering elements beyond the purely physical. In pleading for this holistic approach he celebrates family medicine which 'in its quiet and unassuming way, and every day of the week, is still at the very frontline of human suffering'.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Medicine is not just about science. It's also all about stories, and about the mingling of narratives among doctors, and between them and their patients.' So writes Cecil Helman after 27 years as a family practitioner in and around London interlaced with training and research as a medical anthropologist, comparing a wide variety of medical systems and other forms of healing. This unique combination of frontline health worker and detached academic informs the many stories that make up this fascinating book. It also informs the author's insights into what human suffering can teach us about ourselves and our own attitudes to health and illness, whether we are deliverers or recipients of health care. With insight and compassion, Dr Helman's stories take the reader on a journey from apartheid South Africa, where he did his medical training, to the London of the early 1970s, where for a short time he foreswore medicine to become an anthropologist and poet; from ship's doctor on a Mediterranean cruise to family practitioner in London; from observing curative trance dances in the favelas of Brazil to interviewing sangomas in South Africa. While trained in the Western tradition and with many years of practice in that system, Dr Helman's anthropological insight leads him to view illness in a wider personal, social and cultural context, considering elements beyond the purely physical. In pleading for this holistic approach he celebrates family medicine which 'in its quiet and unassuming way, and every day of the week, is still at the very frontline of human suffering'.

More books from Hammersmith Books Limited

Cover of the book The 'D' Word by Cecil Helman
Cover of the book Why Am I So Exhausted? by Cecil Helman
Cover of the book The Whole Body Solution by Cecil Helman
Cover of the book Trick and Treat by Cecil Helman
Cover of the book Living with Pernicious Anaemia and Vitamin B12 Deficiency by Cecil Helman
Cover of the book The Dementia Whisperer by Cecil Helman
Cover of the book Essential Carer's Guide by Cecil Helman
Cover of the book Managing IBD by Cecil Helman
Cover of the book Smart Health Choices by Cecil Helman
Cover of the book Air-purifying Houseplants by Cecil Helman
Cover of the book Understanding BRCA by Cecil Helman
Cover of the book Hope with Eating Disorders Second Edition by Cecil Helman
Cover of the book Pernicious Anaemia: The Forgotten Disease by Cecil Helman
Cover of the book The Perrin Technique by Cecil Helman
Cover of the book Beat Chronic Disease - The Nutrition Solution by Cecil Helman
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy