Mohan Dutta: Culture-Centered Approach

I find Mansfield et al.’s (2002) piece on the intersections of faith in God, healing, and meaning of illness interesting for two reasons. First, Mansfield et al.’s revelation that faith and religious beliefs represent important variables in patient’s healing process is intriguing. They found that: “Many people in this region of the Southern Eastern United States (80%) believe that God acts through medical doctors to cure illness. Almost 9 out of 10 African Americans in this region see physicians as instruments of God’s will” (Mansfield et.al.2002, p.406). As illustrated in the quotation, faith in God is central in healing among Christians. As a Christian, I could not agree more with the authors. Among the Christian community, it is a norm to state that “God willing, or by his Grace”, coinages that represent our faith in the power of God to make all things possible. Second, I find the piece interesting because of its similarity with emerging trend in Nigeria. The proliferation of Pentec...

Today I had another interview with one of the volunteers for our project. Something she mentioned to me in our conversation was that she is a private individual. She has no family who live in the area. It’s just her boyfriend and her. She admitted that they have no friends really… no one they share experiences with, commiserate with, and celebrate milestones with. I asked her what encouraged her desire to be private. Pride. She and her boyfriend do not want to make widely known their tough circumstances. She doesn’t want others to feel like she is relying on them for anything that, perhaps, they are also struggling to maintain. While the strong sense of pride is unique among the three interviews I’ve been involved with so far, the lack of a network is not. My interview with this woman took place shortly after I had read the article on breastfeeding. In this article, Cripe discusses the difference in privileged, educated women/mothers and low-income mothers. She offers a quote from US...

In considering the “alternative ways of healing and knowing” theme for class this week, as well as the accompanying readings, I was encouraged to push beyond my own traditional conceptualizations of “appropriate” medical care to acknowledge the ways in which complementary, alternative, and oriental medicine can be equally, if not more, beneficial. I felt myself constantly questioning if the potential benefits of fully adopting an integrative approach to medicine could outweigh the potential problems (or perhaps better framed as “additional work”) that such adoption would present. As I read the report commissioned by the IOM summit, I couldn’t help be surprised at the many ways an integrative medicine approach could be used to aid our ailing health system. For instance, a guiding principle of CAM rests in the idea that interventions that are natural and less invasive should be used whenever possible. Drawing from a prior post of mine regarding the problems of overtreatment in the medica...

Tonight in our "Culture and Health" class, we discussed the meaning of humility in the lives of scholars, about how without humility, we become the "frog in the well" who defines her/his lifeworld from the boundaries of the well. To this frog in the well, the well is the best place in the world because it offers democracy, freedom, liberty, modern medicine, scientific progress and everything Western. Also, to the frog in the well, other cultures are unenlightened and need to be saved. That the frog itself might be in need for enlightenment does not ever cross the frog because she/he is content with the messages of cultural chauvinism that have been fed to her/him since childhood. That other cultures and ways of knowing have something valuable to offer, that "others" whom we have been trained to construct as primitive have invaluable life lessons and knowledge to educate us, that our so called civilized practices might be most fundamentally uncivilized: t...

A lot of patients choose holistic medicine have been surveyed about why they chose holistic therapies said that they did so for spiritual reasons: They( Holistic doctors) had experienced events in their own lives that shifted them toward a holistic worldview in which the disparate pieces of reality seemed to fit together. This description in Zoller and Dutta (2008) reminds me of the understanding of traditional Chinese medicine. All the achieved doctors are senior aged. If patients entered a traditional Chinese medicine clinic, they expect someone who is the age of grandfather that rich of experience of medicine and life. Suppose there is a 30 years old doctor, patients will doubted inside previous anything he might say. Quite opposite, patients are more likely to accept some younger biomedicine physicians. They are supposed to be trained by the modern medical school and know more updated technology and method. Should we say that patients go to the holistic clinic for the communication...

The holistic pain management clinic in Zoller and Dutta (2008), and the bourgeoning popularity of Acupuncture as an efficacious healing method remind me of Mathew, a famous bone healer in a neighboring community in my home country Nigeria. Mathew was famous for miraculous fixing of broken bones resulting from different kinds of injuries, namely car accidents, football games, and more recently commercial cyclists. Accident victims with different degrees of injuries found succor in his magical skills. Mathew’s popularity assumed a crescendo in the 1990’s when the influx of motorcycles popularly known as “okada” a local coinage for a fast means of circumventing traffic in big cities led to rising cases of road traffic accidents and fracture injuries. Particularly interesting is the treatment of patients from orthopedic hospitals reputed for plaster of Paris (POP), which was a standard mode of treating patients with bone fracture. POP, which is a biomedical treatment, lasts for several mon...

In reading Mohan and Christina’s posts below, and comparing these to the reading on holistic healing, I can’t help but think about what it means to feel sick or experience pain. One of the excerpts from an interview with a patient includes the statement, “I think the acupuncture did gradually help, but, really, getting a hug from [Dr. Aparna] was the best medicine.” Sickness and pain truly are such a personal matter and, as we’ve discussed in class, a truly personal experience. Like any other personal issues we are faced to deal with, we, as protective individuals, are selective in whom we let into our inner circles of “knowing.” Most often, we let into our inner circle not just a loved one, but a trusted loved one. This is someone who is going to care deeply about what we’re dealing with. They don’t want us to hurt anymore (physically or emotionally). When I was a kid, I can remember having a high fever and my mom often telling me how she would take on the fever herself if that mea...

Christina's previous posting and our discussion of meanings of healing this week in the "Culture and Health" class remind me of my grandmother. Christina reminded me of the void in knowledge that has been left behind since nana passed away almost a decade back. Nana, as we 18 siblings growing up in our joint family called her, was and always remains with us as an incredible source of knowledge and wisdom, as a repository of guidance during hours of need. At the deepest moments of needing knowledge and wisdom about decisions in life and directions for action, I try to remember back to what nana would have said, or what she would have uttered, or how she would have guided us siblings. Nana was an incredible repository of knowledge from perspectives that were gathered through her culture, her readings of books and newspapers (I remember her as reading newspapers and books throughout the day, all day, right until the point she passed away), her upbringing as the daughter of...

Just about a year ago from today, I was finishing an ethnographic project for a qualitative research class where I spent 4-6 hours a week at the local health department’s free clinic observing the behaviors, conversations, and interactions among those waiting for vaccinations or check-ups in the waiting room area. Interestingly enough, after reading Dutta’s chapter contrasting the biomedical method of curing and healing with various other perspectives, my mind was full of examples of situations where the biomedical system was forced upon individuals as the only viable and legitimate mechanism for improving one’s health. I remember overhearing a conversation between two elderly women regarding a doctor’s disbelief in one woman’s accusation that her back pain was more than mere arthritis and old age. Numerous parents would share with one another their frustration in being forced to vaccinate their children for conditions that they “couldn't even pronounce.” The waiting room itself wa...

Purdue has chosen this year "The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks" as the reading for its Common Reading Program. I have been invited as a panelist to speak about some of the key themes that emerge from this beautiful narrative of medicine, disenfranchisement, and social justice. Let me first say, What a great book choice for our freshmen As I have read this book and its chapters over and over again, I am touched by the stories of disenfranchisement of those very sectors of the population who have often constituted the foundations for the development of knowledge. The power in turning human lives into bodies for exploitation by knowledge structures in the mainstream is a theme that works throughout the sub-plots of the book. In one part of the book, author Rebecca Skloot describes for the readers the process through which Henrietta's cells were removed from her body and then entered into the technologies of medicine as sources of knowledge and economic gains. On one h...

To situate myself in the mindset of the biomedical model is not difficult to do. I’ve done this my entire life. I was brought up in this school of thinking, through the pathways of treatment my mom exposed me to when I was sick, the preferred technologies in combating loved ones’ illnesses, and the medical knowledge readily shared through the plethora of available media channels. As an adult, I’m readily supporting this model as I have come to rely on it and refer to it for my own daughter. And, thus, the dominant power and its social construction of reality continue to be supported by me, a life-long member. Oh, and should I mention that I’m a white, middle class female with advanced degrees? In the depth and breadth of the CCA discussion, and after the strangely difficult-to-admit-truth above, I find myself wanting to take the opportunity and consider a redefining of Marx’s class consciousness. What does it mean to me, and how does my position, my beliefs, and values contribute to ...

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a respiratory disease in humans which is caused by the SARS coronavirus . Originally, SARS spread from the Guangdong province of China to rapidly infect individuals up to 37 countries around the world through international communication and flights. It is a typical case demonstrated that how a local government responds to a crisis is intrinsically linked with the ways in which the local government is constituted in the global discourse, which in turn also influence the global policies and reactions to it. Because of the exposure of the media worldwide, China and the whole south Asia’s reputation were damaged. The traveling business was hugely decreased. Most of the international flights were cancelled due to the disease. And here, we could not miss the role of WHO in the whole process of this disease: gave highly attention and support, for example, network was set up for doctors and researchers dealing with SARS; airline passengers were reque...

This week’s reading was, again, a clear reminder of what it takes to be an expert in the field… As a communication scholar, the desire to walk the walk and talk the talk entails SO MUCH more than grabbing hold of a fist full of theories, staking a claim with positivists or post-positivists, and rolling out relevant research questions that easily identify with current social issues. Early on in my graduate work, this is how I interpreted the field of research, and I would venture to guess that many other young scholars have done so, too. While I am, by no means, proficient and well versed in my selected academic arena, this last year and a half has begun to reveal to me how credible (and beneficial) research needs to be so much more than just a theoretical framework and an appropriately paired methodology. In fact, I begin to feel a wee bit of excitement when I recognize the relevant areas in which I do not know. Of course, while the landscape of the unknown becomes wider and greater, ...

Broadly, this week’s readings centre on how corporations and the elite influence policies. The readings remind me of some important scenerios in Nigeria that exemplify some of the issues raised. Of particular significance is the Freedom of Information Bill, an important policy that will enhance accountability and meaningfully impact the lives of several Nigerians.Interestingly, the bill has been characterised by intriques. To put issues into proper perspective, and to illustrate how the Nigerian scenerio fits into the rhetoric in policy making revealed in the readings, I begin with a quotation from Conrad and Jodlowski. The authors poignantly capture the rhetoric used by the elite class and corporations to shield the public from effectively participating in open decisions that shape policies that significantly impact the lives of the public in the following expression: “The simplest means of privatizing public policy making is to press for the creation of structures that allow c...