Clinical Medicine Meets Social Sciences

The book under review has its origin in a consultation organised by the Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore in December 2004 to discuss “ways of building linkages between medical education and healthcare thr­ough faculty training” (Preface: xi). Some felt “that there were inherent problems in the structure of medical knowledge itself” (Preface: x) which needed to be addressed first and to do that would require inputs from social sciences and humanities. Accordingly, a collaborative effort was initiated bet­ween CMC and the Hyderabad-based ­Anveshi Research Centre for Women’s Studies. Over the next four to five years, the group deliberated on the content and practice of medicine in the Indian ­context and the outcome is Towards a Critical Medical Practice: Reflections on the Dilemma of Medical Culture Today.

A review after a book has been in the market for over a year cannot confine ­itself to whether it is a good read or not. Therefore, what I would like to do is ­engage with the book dialectically.