Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Ruth Barcan is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies, University of Sydney. She is the author of Nudity: A Cultural Anatomy (Berg, 2004).

"What a marvellous book this is - insightful, well-researched, critically-minded, yet also personal and empathic. Barcan helps us 'rethink the body' through a brilliant examination of practices in alternative medicine, viewed through the lens of cultural studies, the history of philosophy/psychology, and experiential accounts. The product is that rarest of things - a work of comprehensive scholarship that is also a compelling read. - Drew Leder, Professor of Philosophy, Loyola College, Maryland, USRuth Barcan offers the first book-length ethnography of a subaltern or alternative sensorium. She describes in vivid detail the challenge to the dominant sensory model of Western society presented by the practitioners and consumers of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), who differ - sometimes widely and often wildly - from the larger society regarding the values and uses of the senses ... Reading this book is to join in a profoundly liberating exercise in the education of the senses. - David Howes, Professor of Anthropology, Concordia University, Canada"

• Chapter 1: IntroductionChapter 2: Vision: The Power of SightChapter 3: Sound: Good VibrationsChapter 4: Touch: Knowing Touch: BodyworkChapter 5: The Sixth Sense: IntuitionConclusionBibliographyIndex