Synopses & Reviews
The essays brought together in this volume are the product of a University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, Colloquium on Science, Technology, and Society devoted to foundations of health care practices. Prescriptions contributes to the philosophy of medicine by redefining, redrawing, and resetting the respective domains of philosophy, medicine, and healthcare. It provides a conceptual point of departure, a point from which the radical changes that will be required of health care in the next century can be envisioned and acted upon.
Part I consists of three essays that provide critical analyses of the conceptual apparatus that informs the many dimensions of health care practices. In general, the contributors challenge the fundamental relationships of authority that exist between patients and health care practitioners, question the tradition of using classical ethical theories within the domain of health care, and suggest a set of different directions in which health care should develop. These essays demonstrate why a reevaluation of the culture of health care, and not just specific practices, is necessary. The two essays in Part II explore the economic, technical, legal, and public policy dimensions of contemporary medicine. The novelty of these essays lies in their response to the challenges already posed by the three preceding essays: each essay attempts to provide a specific contextual analysis for articulating and testing the broad conceptual and axiological problems raised therein. Part III provides a more specific context for exploring the issues and themes articulated in Parts I and II. Drawing attention to the techniques used to diagnose and, supposedly, cure, the contributors directly attack the view that psychoanalysis can be understood in medical or scientific terms. Those interested in the philosophical aspects of health care will find this volume provocative reading.
Review
The essays in this collection address the notion of whether `health-care practice [can] afford to be bound by a foundation or an ethics? If foundations are necessary, then what kind of principles are required? And if principles are required, how fixed or stable can they be?' The volume contains a multiplicity of `prescriptions' that offer suggestions, if not concrete answers, to these thought-provoking questions in the philosophy of medicine. Contents include: `Democratizing Medicine,' by Joseph Agassi; `Contemporary Bioethics and the Demise of Modern Medicine,' by Robert M. Veatch; `Humanizing Health Care Practice Through a More Humane Technology of Concepts,' by James W. Dicoff and Patricia James; `Increasing Health Consumerism: Can It Be Done?' by Marilyn L. Stember; `The New Reproductive Technologies: Ethical, Social, and Public Policy Concerns,' by Michael A. Grodin; `Psychoanalysis as Religion: Psychoanalytic Theory as Ideology, Psychoanalytic Practice as Cure of Souls,' by Thomas Szasz; and `Seduction in Tongues: Reconstructing the Field of Metaphor in the Treatment of Schizophrenia,' by Nathaniel Laor.Science, Technology &Society
Synopsis
Redefining, redrawing, and resetting the respective domains of philosophy, medicine, and health care, this book provides a conceptual point of departure from which the radical changes that will be required of health care in the next century can be envisioned and acted upon. It provides critical analyses of the conceptual apparatus that informs the many dimensions of health care practices, challenging the fundamental relationships of authority that exist between patients and health care practitioners, questioning the tradition of using classical ethical theories within the domain of health care, and suggesting a set of different directions in which health care should develop.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [177]-182).
About the Author
GAYLE L. ORMISTON is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and the Institute for Applied Linguistics at Kent State UniversityRAPHAEL SASSOWER is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.
Table of Contents
Introduction
The Conceptual Displacement of Health-Care Protocols
Democratizing Medicine by Joseph Agassi
Contemporary Bioethics and the Demise of Modern Medicine by Robert M. Veatch
Humanizing Health-Care Practice Through a More Humane Technology of Concepts by James W. Dickoff and Patricia James
Eliminating Hierarchies: Realigning Individual Values and Social Norms
Increasing Health Consumerism: Can It Be Done? by Marilyn L. Stember
The New Reproductive Technologies: Ethical, Social, and Public Policy Concerns by Michael A. Grodin
Overcoming Scientific Pretenses: The Duplicity of Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis as Religion: Psychoanalytic Theory as Ideology, Psychoanalytic Practice as Cure of Souls by Thomas Szasz
Seduction in Tongues: Reconstructing the Field of Metaphor in the Treatment of Schizophrenia by Nathaniel Laor
Selected Bibliography
Index