Website and Class Reflection
This class was quite a surprise for me if we’re being completely honest. Going into this class I really had no idea what I was getting myself into, knowing little to nothing about the medical anthropology field. This class started up just a few weeks after I finished studying for and taking the MCAT and the last thing I wanted to do was take another class. My attitude had completely changed though once the class got going, I found it very interesting in that it is an outlook on the medical field that’s not very acknowledged with most people just thinking about human biology, hospitals, and physicians. As a broad overview of medical anthropology I’d describe it to someone with no prior knowledge about the field (like myself before taking this class) as the study of human health and the many views or perspectives that come along with it. Anthropologists in this field look at all the influences that play a part into each individual perspective. Such influences include views on biological, cultural, social, and ecological factors just to name a few.
Understanding illnesses is something that is very important to almost anyones point of view, whether it be that of a doctor, student, or even just the general public. The more knowledge that’s out there about these illnesses can help doctors with the treatment of their patients, as this maybe fairly obvious. But a point that’s not as obvious is within the general population, the more each individual person knows about potential illnesses out there can be very beneficial, in that life choices can be changed to help prevent potential onset development. In the case that a person does unfortunately have an illness, more knowledge will allow them to make a choice on how they want to attack their problem letting them know that there is help out there, as seen in the case with depression throughout this website.
The anthropological approach I found the most interesting throughout this class was the Ethnomedical approach, and more specifically showing the many different ways culture plays a part in illness treatment. The article “Clown Doctors: Shaman Healers of Western Medicine” really stood out to me in the week three materials on the class site. The reason being that even though western medicine is primarily practiced in the U.S the more traditional approaches can still be applied and useful as pointed out by the document. A reading I came across while working through this website, “Understanding Depression across Cultures”, was very good at explaining this approach using depression as it’s main focus. I would absolutely recommend it for this class for the reason that while working my way through, it almost seems like it was made for this class going in-depth about the many ways depression is viewed, diagnosed, and treated across a variety of different cultures.
Lastly, I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to view my site and I hoping that you learned as much as I did on the topic of medical anthropology and depression.
Understanding illnesses is something that is very important to almost anyones point of view, whether it be that of a doctor, student, or even just the general public. The more knowledge that’s out there about these illnesses can help doctors with the treatment of their patients, as this maybe fairly obvious. But a point that’s not as obvious is within the general population, the more each individual person knows about potential illnesses out there can be very beneficial, in that life choices can be changed to help prevent potential onset development. In the case that a person does unfortunately have an illness, more knowledge will allow them to make a choice on how they want to attack their problem letting them know that there is help out there, as seen in the case with depression throughout this website.
The anthropological approach I found the most interesting throughout this class was the Ethnomedical approach, and more specifically showing the many different ways culture plays a part in illness treatment. The article “Clown Doctors: Shaman Healers of Western Medicine” really stood out to me in the week three materials on the class site. The reason being that even though western medicine is primarily practiced in the U.S the more traditional approaches can still be applied and useful as pointed out by the document. A reading I came across while working through this website, “Understanding Depression across Cultures”, was very good at explaining this approach using depression as it’s main focus. I would absolutely recommend it for this class for the reason that while working my way through, it almost seems like it was made for this class going in-depth about the many ways depression is viewed, diagnosed, and treated across a variety of different cultures.
Lastly, I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to view my site and I hoping that you learned as much as I did on the topic of medical anthropology and depression.
Bibliography:
Chentsova-Dutton, and Tsai. "Understanding Depression across Culture." Psychology. Accessed August 15, 2013. http://psych.stanford.edu/~tsailab/PDF/Understanding%20Depression%20Across%20Cultures.pdf.
"Clown Doctors." Accessed August 14, 2013. http://www.demotix.com/news/389522/bolaroja-doctors-clown-portraits#media-389447.
"Medical Anthropology Matters." Health on Earth. Accessed August 14, 2013. http://www.healthonearth.net/2011/11/medical-anthropology-and-global-health.html.
Miller Van Blerkom, Linda. "Clown Doctors: Shaman Healers of Western Medicine." MSU Anthropology | Michigan State University. Accessed August 14, 2013. http://anthropology.msu.edu/anp204-us13/files/2012/06/Blerkom-Clown-Doctors-Shaman-healers-of-western-medicine.pdf.
Chentsova-Dutton, and Tsai. "Understanding Depression across Culture." Psychology. Accessed August 15, 2013. http://psych.stanford.edu/~tsailab/PDF/Understanding%20Depression%20Across%20Cultures.pdf.
"Clown Doctors." Accessed August 14, 2013. http://www.demotix.com/news/389522/bolaroja-doctors-clown-portraits#media-389447.
"Medical Anthropology Matters." Health on Earth. Accessed August 14, 2013. http://www.healthonearth.net/2011/11/medical-anthropology-and-global-health.html.
Miller Van Blerkom, Linda. "Clown Doctors: Shaman Healers of Western Medicine." MSU Anthropology | Michigan State University. Accessed August 14, 2013. http://anthropology.msu.edu/anp204-us13/files/2012/06/Blerkom-Clown-Doctors-Shaman-healers-of-western-medicine.pdf.