Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #284921 in Books
• Published on: 2001-12-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 300 pages

Synopsis
The medical establishment has become a major threat to health, says Ivan Illich. He outlines the causes of iatrogenic dideases, caused by medical cures, and the impotence of the medical services to extend life expectancy. If people need bureaucratic interference to mate, give birth and die, they become divorced from pain, sickness and death, and become unable to cope with life.

Customer Reviews

A classic text on modern medicine
I'm surprised no-one before me has written a review of this classic text. It's many years since I first read it, but I can never forget the impact Illich's sharp and intelligent analysis made on me then. Not only is the argument profound, it is backed up by a most extraordinary depth of source materials, more perhaps than I have ever seen in any other book. That is, of course, important, in that Illich's criticisms of the way medicine has taken control of our lives are never entirely obvious and need the reinforcement of the studies and statistics on which he bases his views. Readers will recognize the concept of iatrogenesis, whereby medical treatment, through unintended effects, causes harm rather than good. Illich, however, takes iatrogensis and applies it serially to society as a whole, until he reaches (if I remember correctly) the iatrogenesis of the human spirit. You will seldom read a more intelligent, passionate, or thought-provoking book.

Profound, but turgid prose
Illich had a penetrating, detached view of life and social matters. This book paints a picture of flaws in the health services that is obvious only in hindsight, but painfully so.

His prose is often turgid, and I can go paragraphs without really understanding what he is saying.

And then there are sentences that I would happily cut out and frame, so piercing was his perception.

A loss of 1 star for readability, but do not let that put you off the profound messages contained therein.