Description
Book SynopsisAttributes the development of patients' faith in doctors to the inspiration and influence of Protestant and Catholic clergymen during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This book explains that as the influence of clergymen waned, and as reliance on medical technology increased, patients' trust in doctors steadily declined.
Trade Review"Imber offers a well-researched, insightful work on the role of trust in American medicine, and how social changes altered both doctors' and patients' understanding of the role of the physician from the late 19th century to the present. Imber's relentless focus on the issue of trust differentiates his work from other histories of medicine and doctoring in America... Overall, this is an important book on medicine, doctor-patient relationships, and the historical progress of medical ethics."--A.W. Klink, Choice "Trusting Doctors can strongly be recommended as a reference text for all teachers in the sociology and bio ethical fields and should be referred to by those who determine and regularly change the content of Medical School teaching."--Sam Mellick, CBE, Supreme Court Library Review of Books "Imber offers a thought-provoking entry into the history of bioethics, a history which continues to unfold."--Susan E. Lederer, Social History of Medicine "Imber is at his best ... when he presents his views on religion and the origins of American medical professionalism. With erudition, he draws on archival material drawn from the writings and preaching of American clergy in the 19th and early 20th centuries."--Joseph J. Fins, Journal of the American Medical Association "Trusting Doctors is an original and important analysis of the decline of doctors' moral authority and a subtle, sociologically informed critique of contemporary medical bioethics."--Robert Zussman, American Journal of Sociology "I learned a great deal from reading this book... The book is exceedingly well documented, the notes are very illuminating, and I've already bought or downloaded a number of Imber's sources for further reading. Anyone interested in medical ethics, medical sociology, or the history of medicine will find this book a very worthwhile read."--Daniel P. Sulmasy, New Atlantis
Table of ContentsPreface: A Sociological Perspective xi Introduction xvii Part One: Religious Foundations of Trust in Medicine Chapter 1: Protestantism, Piety, and Professionalism 3 Chapter 2: The Infl uence of Catholic Perspectives 22 Chapter 3: The Scientifi c Challenge to Faith 43 Chapter 4: Public Health, Public Trust, and the Professionalization of Medicine 65 Part Two: Beyond the Golden Age of Trust in Medicine Chapter 5: The Growth of Popular Distrust in Medicine 107 Chapter 6: The Evolution of Bioethics 130 Chapter 7: Anxiety in the Age of Epidemiology 144 Chapter 8: Trust and Mortality 167 Acknowledgments 197 Appendix 1: Extant Addresses, Sermons, and Eulogies by Clergymen 201 Appendix 2: Philadelphia Medical Sermons 208 Appendix 3: Long Island College Hospital Commencements, 1860-1899 210 Notes 213 Index 265
