Other Healers: Unorthodox Medicine in America / Edition 1

by Norman Gevitz

Overview

Sixty million Americans have relied at some point in their lives on osteopaths, chiropractors, folk or religious healers, naturopaths, homeopaths, and acupuncturists; millions more employ alternative psychological systems, unorthodox diet and fitness programs, and a range of self-help treatments. Yet until recently, most historians and social scientists of medicine have assumed that unorthodox movements were of comparatively minor significance in the study of medicine and society.

In "Other Healers" Norman Gevitz and eight other authors explore the most significant alternatives to orthodox medicine to have gained a place in American society from the early 19th century to the present. Neither advocating nor debunking these alternatives, they explore phenomena that range from Thomsonism, the early botanical system that was progenitor of the first native American sects,to the faith-healing of contemporary pentecostals and charasmatics; from the Water Cure Movement, which provided important support for the efforts of early feminist reformers, to osteopathy, whose practitioners are now licensed to offer the same range of services as M.D.'s.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801837104
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	10/01/1988
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	324
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.72(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Norman Gevitz is a professor of the history and sociology of medicine and the senior vice president—academic affairs at the A. T. Still University of Health Sciences. He is the editor of Other Healers: Unorthodox Medicine in America.

Table of Contents

Preface
Chapter 1. Three Perspectives on Unorthodox Medicine
Chapter 2. The Botanical Movements and Orthodox Medicine
Chapter 3. Patient, Heal Thyself: Popular Health Reform Movements as Unorthodox Medicine
Chapter 4. Gender, Ideology, and the Water-Cure Movement
Chapter 5. Homeopathy in America: The Rise and Fall and Persistence of a Medical Heresy
Chapter 6. Osteopathic Medicine: From Deviance to Difference
Chapter 7. Chiropractors: Evolution to Acceptance
Chapter 8. Christian Science Healing in America
Chapter 9. Divine Healing in Modern American Protestantism
Chapter 10. Contemporary Folk Medicine
References
List of Contributors
Index

Editorial Reviews

"This book deserves an unambiguous welcome as an overview of American irregular medicine which is simultaneously comprehensive (it ranges smoothly from traditional folk medicine and early nineteenth-century medical botany up to Oral Roberts and contemporary chiropractic) and compact (all this in three hundred pages)."

Bulletin of the History of Medicine - Roy Porter

This book deserves an unambiguous welcome as an overview of American irregular medicine which is simultaneously comprehensive (it ranges smoothly from traditional folk medicine and early nineteenth-century medical botany up to Oral Roberts and contemporary chiropractic) and compact (all this in three hundred pages).

— Roy Porter

Bulletin of the History of Medicine

Nine scholars examine the history of social dynamics of alternative health practices in this country. Editor Gevitz provides a historical and theoretical overview, followed by essays on botanical, health reform, and water-cure movements, homeopathy, osteopathy, chiropractic, Christian Science, divine healing, and contemporary folk medicine. Admirably nonpolemical, this book will be of interest to scholars in medical history, sociology, and anthropology; American and women's studies (the water cure having feminist connections); and folklore. Highly recommended. Judith Eannarino, George Washington Univ. Lib., Washington, D.C.

Library Journal

The author and eight other contributors discuss the development and practice of healing by osteopaths, chiropractors, folk and religious healers, naturopaths, homeopaths, and acupuncturists, among others. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews