Using Alternative Health Therapies: A Qualitative Analysis - Softcover

Jacqueline Low (author)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1551302640 ISBN 13: 9781551302645

Publisher: Canadian Scholars, 2004

Synopsis

This book provides a distinctive sociological inquiry into the perspectives and social issues surrounding the use of alternative therapies. Dr. Low presents the experiences of twenty-one Canadians who use alternative approaches to health care. Her study foregrounds the lay perspective by using a symbolic interactionist approach, which emphasizes individuals' own understanding of reality as a basis for their actions. Dr. Low analyses why the participants in the study came to use alternative therapies; the ideologies informing the models of health and healing they espouse; the impact these beliefs have on them, and the implications of their experiences for Canadian health care policy.

About this title

Review:

This is one of the most extensive examinations of the users of alternative medicines in Canada. In light of the recent and rapid rise in alternative medicine use, Low's analysis will be fascinating to a wide range of audiences." - Dr. Ivy Lynn Bourgeault, Assistant Professor, McMaster University

Synopsis:

This title provides a distinctive sociological inquiry into the perspectives and social issues surrounding the use of alternative therapies. Dr. Low presents the experiences of twenty-one Canadians who use alternative approaches to health care. The people she spoke with sought out alternative approaches in order to solve health problems for which they had previously found little or no redress. In using alternative therapies, they developed ever-expanding networks of alternative health care, composed of alternative practitioners, health care professionals, and other lay users of alternative therapies. Through participating in alternative approaches, and interacting with others who use them, these informants began to take on alternative ideologies of health and healing. For some, these beliefs became a mechanism through which they transformed their subjective perceptions of health status for the better. Others became so enamoured of alternative approaches to healing that they sought training as practitioners. All of the participants found that they had to manage the socially constructed deviant identities they acquired through their participation in alternative therapies.

About this edition

• Publisher: Canadian Scholars
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1551302640
• ISBN 13: 9781551302645
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160