The body multiple : ontology in medical practice / Annemarie Mol.

Author
Mol, Annemarie [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
Durham : Duke University Press, ©2002.
Description
xii, 196 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Availability

Available Online

Copies in the Library

Location Call Number Status Location Service Notes
Architecture Library - Stacks RC692 .M59 2002 Browse related items Request

    Details

    Subject(s)
    Series
    Science and cultural theory [More in this series]
    Summary note
    The Body Multiple is an extraordinary ethnography of an ordinary disease. Drawing on fieldwork in a Dutch university hospital, Annemarie Mol looks at the day-to-day diagnosis and treatment of atherosclerosis. A patient information leaflet might describe atherosclerosis as the gradual obstruction of the arteries, but in hospital practice this one medical condition appears to be many other things. From one moment, place, apparatus, specialty, or treatment, to the next, a slightly different "atherosclerosis" is being discussed, measured, observed, or stripped away. This multiplicity does not imply fragmentation; instead, the disease is made to cohere through a range of tactics including transporting forms and files, making images, holding case conferences, and conducting doctor-patient conversations. The Body Multiple juxtaposes two distinct texts. Alongside Mol's analysis of her ethnographic material--interviews with doctors and patients and observations of medical examinations, consultations, and operations--runs a parallel text in which she reflects on the relevant literature. Mol draws on medical anthropology, sociology, feminist theory, philosophy, and science and technology studies to reframe such issues as the disease-illness distinction, subject-object relations, boundaries, difference, situatedness, and ontology. In dialogue with one another, Mol's two texts meditate on the multiplicity of reality-in-practice. Presenting philosophical reflections on the body and medical practice through vivid storytelling, The Body Multiple will be important to those in medical anthropology, philosophy, and the social study of science, technology, and medicine.-back cover.
    Bibliographic references
    Includes bibliographical references (p. [185]-190) and index.
    Contents
    • Doing disease
    • Different atherosclerosis
    • Coordination
    • Distribution
    • Inclusion
    • Doing theory.
    ISBN
    • 0822329026 ((cloth ; : alk. paper))
    • 9780822329022 ((cloth ; : alk. paper))
    • 0822329174 ((pbk. ; : alk. paper))
    • 9780822329176 ((pbk. ; : alk. paper))
    LCCN
    2002006932
    OCLC
    49743471
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