Eating Drugs: Psychopharmaceutical Pluralism in India
by Stefan Ecks
New York University Press, 2013. 233 pp.
In Stefan Ecks’ poignant ethnography, he illuminates the relationship between digestive health and mental health in Calcutta, paying particular attention to the contributions this relationship has made to a pharmaceuticalized India. He traces three medical systems––Ayurvedic, homeopathic and allopathic––as they each locate the …
A Disability of the Soul:
An Ethnography of Schizophrenia and Mental Illness in Contemporary Japan
by Karen Nakamura
Cornell University Press, 2013
US $24.95, Paperback + DVD
It takes a strong heart and an open mind to study something like schizophrenia. No doubt many anthropologists have taken on this courageous task, many to be eventually rewarded with pieces of …
Bad Souls: Madness and Responsibility in Modern Greece
Duke University Press, 2012
344pp., US $25.95 paperback
Psychiatric care seems to be ever marred by the problematic and contingent relationships it fosters. Patient and physician, nurse and therapist, administration and action snag on the ideals and shortcomings of each other’s missions. In Elizabeth Anne Davis’ haunting ethnography, …