Against Health: How Health Became the New Morality: 18 (Biopolitics) - Tapa dura

This book provides a strong antidote to the common notion that health is an unqualified good and often an individual responsibility. -- Peter Conrad * Sociology of Health & Illness * [A]n important new book. * Psychology Today * [T]his collection of essays reexamines the definition of & health, particularly as a mechanism for moral judgment... Lots of food for thought- this highly philosophical book... will be of interest to those wanting to stretch their views on health care. * Library Journal * A powerful group of essays, and the topics addressed in the respective chapters are interesting, insightful, and thought-provoking. -- David Serlin,author of Replaceable You: Engineering the Body in Postwar America These essays are well-researched and supported, and this volume is suitable for academic studyin sociology, bioethics public health and public policy. It is also remarkably well written and engaging, and makes its sophisticated theoretical premises readily accessible to a wide audience. -- Lisa Bellatoni * Metapsychology Reviews * From obesity to mental health to pharmacology, the essays explore the ways in which "public" health translates increasingly as a moral judgement of behavior. * Society Magazine *

Against Health argues that health is a concept, a norm, and a set of bodily practices whose ideological work is often rendered invisible by the assumption that it is a monolithic, universal good.