The most exhaustively citation filled book that I have ever read. This thorough critique of the health professions makes the case that the decision to turn the art of healing into the cold science of medicine has done as much harm as it has alleviated. He criticizes the way the unique individual is being replaced by the statistical person, and he investigates the over-medicalization of American society and the commodification of health. Like most critical theory, it fails to provide much direction on what to do about our predicament— but the critique is solid.
