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Patient's Progress Roy Porter (Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine)

Patient's Progress By Roy Porter (Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine)

Patient's Progress by Roy Porter (Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine)


$63.99
Condition - Very Good
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Summary

Pre-modern society was overshadowed by illness and the threat of death. This book examines the sick in Britain between 1650-1850, focusing on the personal and sociological bonds between patients and doctors, examining in particular the economic and ethical dimensions of this relationship.

Patient's Progress Summary

Patient's Progress: Sickness, Health and Medical Care, 1650-1850 by Roy Porter (Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine)

Pre-modern society was overshadowed by illness and the threat of death. This outstanding new book examines what people did when they fell sick in Britain between 1650 - 1850. The authors investigate the well-established and flourishing tradition of self-medication, as practised by individuals, within the family and in the wider community. They look at what kinds of medical services could be obtained, both from the regular profession and among quacks and other healers. Above all they explore the personal and sociological bonds developed between patients and their doctors, examining in particular the economic and ethical dimensions of this privileged but precarious relationship. What precisely did doctors have to offer the sick in an age before scientific medicine could promise near-certain cures? This fundamental question is analysed against the background of the cultural and religious attitudes of Enlightenment England and in the context of the development of the medical profession.

Drawing on the letters, journals and autobiographies of individual sufferers and from the papers of doctors, this remarkable investigation opens up new issues and offers interpretations which will certainly stimulate controversy among historians, anthropologists and sociologists and lead the way to further research in this area.

Patient's Progress Reviews

'The Porters have written a very important work that helps balance the conventional physician-driven accounts of eighteenth-century medicine with a richly documented examination of the sick person's ideas about health ... Henceforth, no one writing on this subject will be able to ignore this key contribution.' Journal of Social History

About Roy Porter (Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine)

Roy Porter is Professor of the History of Medicine at the Wellcome Institute. Both he and Dorothey Porter are currently working on a history of public health and a history of ideas of health and disease.

Table of Contents

Preface.

Part I: Context.

1. Facing Sickness.

2. Healing in Society.

Part II: Patients. .

3. Self-medication.

4. Attitudes Towards Doctors.

5. Consultations.

6. Irregulars.

Part III: Doctors.

7. The Economy of Medicine.

8. The Doctors' Point of View.

9. Therapies.

10. Doctors and Women.

Part IV: Medicine, Ideology and Society. .

11. Medical Knowledge.

12. Survey and Conclusion.

Notes.

Bibliography.

Index.

Additional information

GOR009725409
9780745602516
0745602517
Patient's Progress: Sickness, Health and Medical Care, 1650-1850 by Roy Porter (Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine)
Used - Very Good
Hardback
John Wiley and Sons Ltd
19890914
320
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - Patient's Progress