Beyond Boundaries Of Biomedicine

Cultural forces shape much of medicine including psychiatry, and medicine shapes much of our culture. Medicine provides us with beneficial treatments of disease, but it also causes harm, increasingly so in the form of overmedication enhanced by the pharmaceutical industry. The book explores boundaries of medicine and psychiatry in a cultural setting by building bridges between unconnected literatures. Boundaries have to be redrawn since effects of the environment, biological, social and political, on health and disease are undervalued. Potential beneficial effects of diet therapies are a recurrent theme throughout the text, with particular emphasis on omega-3 fatty acids. Deficiencies of these acids in common diets may contribute to many chronic diseases and psychiatric disorders. The book uncovers limitations of evidence-based medicine, which fosters a restrictive view of health and disease. Case studies include: the biology of migraine; limitations of biological psychiatry; conventional versus alternative medicine; science, religion and near-death experiences.

This unique volume initiates a dialogue between bio-medicine and alternative therapeutics. Undertaking a multidisciplinary exploration of the science and spirituality of healing and wellness, it offers varied perspectives from doctors, medical researchers, Ayurvedic practitioners, philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, and cultural critics. It expands the horizons of health sciences in engaging with diverse traditions — bio-medicine, Ayurveda, Siddha, and Jaina bio-ethics. The book will interest scholars and researchers in social and community medicine, biological sciences, sociology and social anthropology, as well as cultural studies.

Human cloning is a main focus of current bioethical discussion. Involving the self-understanding of the human species, it has become one of the most debated topics in biomedical ethics, not only on the national, but also on the international level. This book brings together articles by bioethicists from several countries who address questions of human cloning within the context of different cultural, religious and regional settings against the background of globalizing biotechnology. It explores on a cross-cultural level the problems and opportunities of global bioethics.

The first volume to collect essays from the emergent field of cultural studies that specifically address the work of James Joyce, Cultural Studies of James Joyce includes work from both well-established Joyce scholars such as Margot Norris and Cheryl Herr and by such younger writers as Tracey Teets Schwarze and Paul Saint-Amour. Topics range over the whole field of culture, from "Nipper" the Victrola dog to the statuary of Praxitiles, from the Tank Girl comics to studies of Irish schizophrenia, from the history of University College Dublin to the political ferment over choral singing at the turn of the century. The volume should be of interest to Joyceans, to students of literature and culture in the twentieth century, and especially to those interested in the interactions of different cultural levels between the nineteenth century and our own time. An introductory survey by R. Brandon Kershner discusses the rise of cultural studies and places the issue within modern debates in literary theory.

A physical chemist (Fritz Haber), a photographer (Josef Breitenbach), a cabaret artist (Georg Kreisler), two writers (Otto Alscher and Albin Stuebs), a pioneering scholar in Irish-German studies (John Hennig) and a Celtic philologist (Julius Pokorny) are the focus of this volume. What they have in common is a biography fractured by the Nazis' rise to power in 1933. Six were forced into exile; the life of the seventh, the Romanian-German writer Otto Alscher, shows that even the biography of a Nazi sympathiser could be dislocated by the years of dictatorship. As the previously unpublished letters which are reproduced here show, Fritz Haber, a Nobel prize winner, spent 'his last lonely months' seeking a dignified way to leave the country to which he had once felt the deepest attachment. Although a prominent member of Germany's academic élite, Julius Pokorny had to retire because of his Jewish ancestry in December 1935 and yet was allowed to continue publishing on ethnic themes until his exile in 1943. Albin Stuebs was forced to seek refuge in Prague and later England when his left-wing political convictions made him a certain target for the Nazis. Because of his marriage into a liberal Jewish family, John Hennig had to renounce all hope of an academic career in Nazi Germany and, after his exile to Ireland, struggled in straitened circumstances to support his family while at the same time developing into an unusually prolific scholar. Proof that exile may stimulate creative energy is provided by Josef Breitenbach, whose remarkable biography appears to show that loss and uprootedness may release otherwise undeveloped creative potential. Similarly, the flight of Georg Kreisler from Vienna in 1938 was the start of 'a remarkable voyage of discovery' which saw him grow into a major, if consistently undervalued figure in the world of post-war German cabaret.

The social sciences have seen a substantial increase in comparative and multi-sited ethnographic projects over the last three decades. Yet, at present, researchers seeking to design comparative field projects have few scholarly works detailing how comparison is conducted in divergent ethnographic approaches. In Beyond the Case, Corey M. Abramson and Neil Gong have gathered together several experts in field research to address these issues by showing how practitioners employing contemporary iterations of ethnographic traditions such as phenomenology, grounded theory, positivism, and interpretivism, use comparison in their works. The contributors connect the long history of comparative (and anti-comparative) ethnographic approaches to their contemporary uses. By honing in on how ethnographers render sites, groups, or cases analytically commensurable and comparable, Beyond the Case offers a new lens for examining the assumptions, payoffs, and potential drawbacks of different forms of comparative ethnography.

Kim Weiler knows how hard it is to live with psoriasis. Since the age of nineteen, she’s navigated the frustration, depression, anger and feelings of shame it can cause. She knows what it’s like to worry that people will discover your “secret.” She understands the fear of judgement that comes with a painful, visible autoimmune disorder. Through her path to healing, she has knowledge that she passionately shares with you about replacing all that doubt, fear and self-criticism with the greatest medicine of all: Love. If you’ve picked up this book, you’ve already tried just about everything your doctor or dermatologist has to offer, and chances are, those treatments don’t work reliably, or they have undesirable side-effects. Kim helps you find patience and gratitude while teaching that your illness is your body communicating with you. She shows you what loving yourself really means in the context of healing your skin. It means changing the way you think about caring for yourself physically, emotionally and mentally. It means making a daily commitment to positive changes that might seem impossible at first, including proper nutrition and other techniques that heal you from the inside out. Her goal in writing this book and in her practice is to prevent you from “trying everything” out of desperation like she did, and to help you find the self-love needed to get you through each and every day. As she says, “Today is the day to take control of your health, to eat right, think right, love right and in return your skin will love you for this!”

The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Culture collects into a single volume thirty-two state-of-the-art chapters written by international specialists, overviewing the ways in which translation studies has both informed, and been informed by, interdisciplinary approaches to culture. The book's five sections provide a wealth of resources, covering both core issues and topics in the first part. The second part considers the relationship between translation and cultural narratives, drawing on both historical and religious case studies. The third part covers translation and social contexts, including the issues of cultural resistance, indigenous cultures and cultural representation. The fourth part addresses translation and cultural creativity, citing both popular fiction and graphic novels as examples. The final part covers translation and culture in professional settings, including cultures of science, legal settings and intercultural businesses. This handbook offers a wealth of information for advanced undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers working in translation and interpreting studies.