Description
Book SynopsisNavigates the divergent cultural meanings of health, and its entanglement with morality in current political discourse
You see someone smoking a cigarette and say,Smoking is bad for your health, when what you mean is, You are a bad person because you smoke. You encounter someone whose body size you deem excessive, and say, Obesity is bad for your health, when what you mean is, You are lazy, unsightly, or weak of will. You see a woman bottle-feeding an infant and say,Breastfeeding is better for that child's health, when what you mean is that the woman must be a bad parent. You see the smokers, the overeaters, the bottle-feeders, and affirm your own health in the process. In these and countless other instances, the perception of your own health depends in part on your value judgments about others, and appealing to health allows for a set of moral assumptions to fly stealthily under the radar.
Against Health argues that health is a concept, a norm, and a set of
Trade Review
[T]his collection of essays reexamines the definition of & health, particularly as a mechanism for moral judgment... Lots of food for thought- this highly philosophical book... will be of interest to those wanting to stretch their views on health care. * Library Journal *
These essays are well-researched and supported, and this volume is suitable for academic studyin sociology, bioethics public health and public policy. It is also remarkably well written and engaging, and makes its sophisticated theoretical premises readily accessible to a wide audience. -- Lisa Bellatoni * Metapsychology Reviews *
This book provides a strong antidote to the common notion that health is an unqualified good and often an individual responsibility. -- Peter Conrad * Sociology of Health & Illness *
From obesity to mental health to pharmacology, the essays explore the ways in which "public" health translates increasingly as a moral judgement of behavior. * Society Magazine *
A powerful group of essays, and the topics addressed in the respective chapters are interesting, insightful, and thought-provoking. -- David Serlin,author of Replaceable You: Engineering the Body in Postwar America
[A]n important new book. * Psychology Today *
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments 1 Introduction: Why "Against Health"? Jonathan M. MetzlPart I: What Is Health, Anyway? 2 What Is Health and How Do You Get It? Richard Klein 3 Risky Bigness: On Obesity, Eating, and the Ambiguity of "Health" Lauren Berlant 4 Against Global Health? Arbitrating Science, Non-Science, and Nonsense through Health Vincanne Adams Part II: Seeing Health through Morality 5 The Social Immorality of Health in the Gene Age: Race, Disability, and Inequality Dorothy Roberts 6 Fat Panic and the New Morality Kathleen LeBesco 7 Against Breastfeeding (Sometimes) Joan B. WolfPart III: Making Health and Disease 8 Pharmaceutical Propaganda Carl Elliott 9 The Strangely Passive-Aggressive History of Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorder Christopher Lane 10 Obsession: Against Mental Health Lennard J. Davis 11 Atomic Health, or How The Bomb Altered American Notions of Death Joseph MascoPart IV: Pleasure and Pain after Health 12 How Much Sex Is Healthy? The Pleasures of Asexuality Eunjung Kim 13 Be Prepared S. Lochlann Jain 14 In the Name of Pain Tobin Siebers 15 Conclusion: What Next? Anna Kirkland About the Contributors Index
