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Clinical Medicine Meets Social Sciences
Towards a Critical Medical Practice: Reflections on the Dilemmas of Medical Culture Today edited by Anand Zachariah, R Srivatsan and Susie Tharu (New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan), 2010; pp 392, Rs 495.
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.