The search for wellbeing in alternative and complementary health practices

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2265754
AutoresEeva Sointu (0000-0001-7495-2096, Lancaster University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2006
Volumen28
Número3
Páginas330-349
Fecha de publicación2006-04-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSociology of Health & Illness (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0141-9889 • E-ISSN: 1467-9566
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-9566.2006.00495.x
PMID16573719
OpenAlexW2092142717
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas51
Referencias citadas28

This article is premised on a need to understand and analyse how those turning to alternative and complementary medicines conceptualise the role of these practices; to ask what kind of 'health' is produced through alternative and complementary medicines and how might the help provided by these practices relate to questions of identity, self and subjectivity? Even though alternative and complementary medicines can be utilised in the face of serious illness, the healing produced through these practices is here argued to transcend physiological health and relate rather to a subjectively assessed sense of 'wellbeing'. In this article, I analyse what this wellbeing entails, in particular, in terms of contemporary understandings of selfhood as well as in relation to the production of appropriate emotions through 'emotion management'. I argue that the wellbeing produced through alternative and complementary health practices can be conceptualised as a means of asserting a particular kind of self as well as a means of negotiating identities offered to people in wider societal discourses and institutions. This article is based on qualitative interviews with both practitioners and users of varied alternative and complementary medicines. The focus is on women's experiences

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