The Body in Question Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

The Body in Question Book

The Body in Question is a reprint of the 1980 book written by Dr Jonathan Miller to complement his then TV series. As the subject is the history and rationale of man's attitude to his own body, one might expect the book to have dated. After all, few things are more otiose than yesterday's medical knowledge. However, the author's lofty philosophical perspective, and distantly literary approach, ensure the text is as refreshingly different as when first written. The book falls gracefully into eight sections, each dealing with some major aspect of medicine or anatomy. The first, Natural Shocks, concerns itself with the nervous system, the second section analyses the body's ailments, and diagnoses thereof. And so on. All the sections are liberally wreathed with allusion and anecdote: yes, there's plenty of stuff about the spleen and the pancreas-- there's also the surprising info that Mozart wrote tunes for robot pianos, and that a dog with no gullet will drink until it drops. Anyone seeking practical medical knowledge should not look here; nor should anyone wanting relevant advice on, say, alternative medicine, or psychiatry: Miller's style and subject range is too pointed, choosy, cerebral. But that's also what makes this book so unique, and therefore engaging. --Sean ThomasRead More

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  • Foyles

    In this remarkable book Jonathan Miller considers the functioning of the body as a subject of private experience. He explores our attitudes towards the body, our astonishing ignorance about certain parts of it and our inability to read its signals. Taking as his starting point the experience of pain, Dr Miller explores the elaborate social process of 'falling ill', considers the physical foundations of 'dis-ease' and looks at the types of individuals man has historically attributed with the power of healing. His explanations are so lucid, so wide-ranging and so whole-heartedly entertaining it is often hard to believe one is reading about the facts of one's own body and what can go wrong with it. His use of metaphor and suggestive models, particularly when tracing the historical development of certain leading ideas in human physiology, is highly stimulating. Above all, there is the keen originality and sheer enthusiasm of Dr Miller's approach to his subject which makes The Body in Question such an outstanding book.

  • 0712665994
  • 9780712665995
  • Jonathan Miller
  • 1 June 2000
  • Pimlico
  • Paperback (Book)
  • 224
  • New edition
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