In this thought-provoking book, sociologists Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. Mc Crea ask what would happen if Western medicine were to disappear. Using a rigorous and imaginative method—a thought experiment—Markle and Mc Crea evaluate medicine’s impact on mortality and our national health. They examine various aspects of medicine, such as primary care, surgery, emergency medicine, pharmaceuticals, and mental illness treatment, and convincingly point out the problems that health care actually causes. Supporting their ideas with statistics and studies from medical and social science literature, Markle and Mc Crea argue that the medical model, despite its tremendous budget and hype, accomplishes far less than most would think. Their conclusions should promote critical review and lively discussion among medical consumers as well as among health care professionals and policy makers.
Table of Content
1. Disappearance
2. Primary Care
3. Surgery
4. Emergency Medicine
5. Pharmaceuticals
6. Mental Illness
7. Mind-Body
8. A World Without Medicine
Appendix A. Alternative Medicine
Appendix B. Thought Experiments
Appendix C. Medicine and Mortality
References
Index
About the author
Gerald E. Markle is Professor of Sociology at Western Michigan University and the author of
Meditations of a Holocaust Traveler, also published by SUNY Press.
Frances B. Mc Crea is Professor of Sociology at Grand Valley State University. Together, they are the coauthors of
Minutes to Midnight: Nuclear Weapons Protest in America.
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