Self-Medication and Society

<p>The question of recourse to self-medication arises at the intersection of two partly antagonistic discourses: that of the public authorities who advocate the practice primarily for economic reasons and that of health professionals who condemn it for fear that it may pose a danger to health and dispossess the profession of expertise. This books examines the reality of self-medication in context and investigates the social treatment of the notion of autonomy ever present in the discourses promoting this practice. </p><p></p><p>Drawing on fieldwork conducted in France the author examines the material cognitive symbolic and social dimensions of the recourse to self-medication considering the motivations and practices of the subjects and what these reveal about their relationship with the medical institution while addressing the question of open access to medicines – a subject of heated debate between the actors concerned on themes such as competence knowledge and responsibility. </p><p></p><p>A rigorous analysis of the strategies adopted by individuals to manage the risks of medicines and increase their efficacy <i>Self-Medication and Society</i> will appeal to sociologists and anthropologists with interests in health illness the body and medicine.</p>