I am closing in on the end of Dr. Jason Satterfield's Great Course on mind-body medicine. He has quoted the idea that the 21st century focus in medicine is the psychology and social/cultural surroundings of a given patient. Taking into consideration the mind state and the cultural surroundings has enthusiastic support and to some, promises to improve medicine, maybe as much as antibiotics did in the 20th century.
As the same time, I am reading Christine Kenneally's "The Invisible History of the Human Race." Much of the first part of the book is about genealogy and the study and charting of a person's ancestors. After getting a dose of the importance of one's social connections from parents and friends to the regional and national character one grew up in from Satterfield, this passage from Kenneally's very fine book stood out:
Yet as Fernandez and Fogli point out, markets have a fundamental relationship with beliefs. A culture's belief about the permissibility of selling another human being as chattel will affect whether it has a slave trade and how widely it operates. The belief that it's good for women to work outside the home will affect the size of the workforce. Since their research was published, Wantchekon said, the dismissal of culture as a factor in studying economics has changed: "' Culture' was no longer a dirty word."
Kenneally, Christine (2014-10-09). The Invisible History of the Human Race: How DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Futures (Kindle Locations 2541-2544). Penguin Group US. Kindle Edition.
There are many ways to characterize this age's interest in science but one is simply the gathering of evidence. Physical scientists are quite aware of the difficulty of getting measurements of human variables such as temperament or mood but prosecutors and defense attorneys over the centuries have sometimes done a very persuasive job of depicting moods and motives. People such as Douglas Hubbard in his "How to Measure Anything" and the book I loved 40 years ago in grad school "Unobtrusive Measures in the Social Sciences" attest to the steady effort to see more clearly into humans and their lives.
The highly regarded book by T.R. Reid, "The Healing of America", makes clear the strong and varied impact cultures can have on what people learn they are supposed to do and to feel about health and ailments.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
