Books by Arthur Kleinman
A Passion for Society explores the historical development and current condition of social science... more A Passion for Society explores the historical development and current condition of social science with a focus brought to how this has been shaped in response to problems of social suffering. Following a line of criticism offered by key social theorists who themselves were unhappy with the professionalization of social science, it provides a critical commentary on how studies of human social life have moved from an original concern with social suffering and its amelioration to dispassionate inquiries into society for their own sake. It explores the potential for terms of social investigation and social research to be informed by humanitarian impulse and by care for humanity. The overall aim is to show how social care can be and is being developed in social science as a powerful revitalization and remaking of the discipline.
“This is a wonderful book on an extremely important subject. The social causes of individual suffering—in company or in isolation—get the attention and probing investigation they demand, both as a contribution to epistemology and as pointers to ways and means of remedial action. This is a much awaited—and beautifully written—book which should make a huge difference to the sad and unjust world in which we live.”—Amartya Sen, Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University
“A Passion for Society is a stirring rejection of the cult of dispassion in modern anthropology and sociology and a brisk rehabilitation of attempts to link fellow feeling to pragmatic (and, yes, humanitarian) efforts to lessen the suffering of others. This defense of caring and caregiving revives old lessons and offers new ones, burnishing the example of great social theorists and of almost forgotten ones. Wilkinson and Kleinman are not trying to win an argument, although they do, but rather to offer a hopeful and humane intellectual basis for what is, fundamentally and unapologetically, a moral stance: against indifference and cynicism and inaction, and for their opposites. This fierce book is both balm and compass.”—Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, Harvard Medical School, Partners In Health, The Brigham and Women’s Hospital
“The world is stuffed full of unbearable human misery. Every day billions of people in the world find themselves living in tragic desperation. What is to be done? How can a social science deal with this best? In this challenging, committed and original study, Iain Wilkinson and Arthur Kleinman provide a history and appreciation of the study of social suffering and urge us to place this at the heart of understanding society by putting compassion and practical care at its core. Critical of the formalism, distance, and coldness of both academic life and social science, the book creates new dialogues. It deserves to become a landmark in redirecting social science to work more passionately to make the world a kinder place.”—Ken Plummer, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Essex University
“In their analysis of ‘the problem of suffering,’ Wilkinson and Kleinman provide a thoroughly convincing argument for a new approach to social theory and social research practice—one that is compassionate, interventionist, and globally oriented, and thus better able to address the pressing issues that define our age.” —Alan Petersen, Professor of Sociology, Monash University
Papers by Arthur Kleinman
The New England journal of medicine, Jan 2, 2004
... Culture shapes the way we approach our world and affects interactions be-tween patients and c... more ... Culture shapes the way we approach our world and affects interactions be-tween patients and clinicians. Many have thought of cultural competence sim-ply as the skills needed to address language barri-ers or knowledge about specific cultures. ...
Harvard review of psychiatry
Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1994
Culture needs to be made more central to the understanding of personality and psychopathology. Ne... more Culture needs to be made more central to the understanding of personality and psychopathology. New anthropological views describe cultural influences on personality and psychopathology by focusing on the effect of social change in local contexts on sociosomatic and sociopsychological processes. This view discloses the cultural biases built into dominant North American professional models of diagnosis and contrasts with past uses
Social Science & Medicine, 2014
In recent years, anthropologists have become increasingly present in medical humanitarian situati... more In recent years, anthropologists have become increasingly present in medical humanitarian situations as scholars, consultants, and humanitarian practitioners and have acquired insight into medical humanitarian policy and practice. In 2012, we implemented a poll on anthropology, health, and humanitarian practice in which 75 anthropologists discussed their experiences in medical humanitarianism. Our goal was to move beyond the existing anarchy of individual voices in anthropological writing and gain an aggregate view of the perspective of anthropologists working in medical humanitarian contexts. Responses lead to six inductively derived thematic priorities. The findings illustrate how anthropologists perceive medical humanitarian practice; which aspects of medical humanitarianism should be seen as priorities for anthropological research; and how anthropologists use ethnography in humanitarian contexts. [medicine, emergency, global health, humanitarianism, anthropology]
Around the world, in high- and low-income countries alike, mental illness and high-risk behaviors... more Around the world, in high- and low-income countries alike, mental illness and high-risk behaviors contribute to profound suffering and loss at the level of the individual and the state. In the case of China as in other developing countries, gains made in the areas of economics, technology, education, and overall standard of living are being offset by a rise in
Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, 1997
... Child and Adolescent Mental Health: A Global Perspective. Leon Eisenberg MD 1 ,; Arthur Klein... more ... Child and Adolescent Mental Health: A Global Perspective. Leon Eisenberg MD 1 ,; Arthur Kleinman MD 2 ,; Alex Cohen PhD Instructor 3. Article first published online: 13 AUG 2007. DOI: 10.1111/j.1744-6171.1997.tb00408.x. Issue. ...
Schizophrenia Bulletin, 2007
Social Science & Medicine, 2014
To understand Chinese immigrants' experiences with mental illness stigma and mental health dispar... more To understand Chinese immigrants' experiences with mental illness stigma and mental health disparities, we integrate frameworks of 'structural vulnerability' and 'moral experience' to identify how interaction between structural discrimination and cultural engagements might shape stigma. Fifty Chinese immigrants, including 64% Fuzhounese immigrants who experienced particularly harsh socioeconomical deprivation, from two Chinese bilingual psychiatric inpatient units in New York City were interviewed from 2006 to 2010 about their experiences of mental illness stigma. Interview questions were derived from 4 stigma measures, covering various life domains. Participants were asked to elaborate their rating of measure items, and thus provided open-ended, narrative data. Analysis of the narrative data followed a deductive approach, guided by frameworks of structural discrimination and "what matters most" e a cultural mechanism signifying meaningful participation in the community. After identifying initial coding classifications, analysis focused on the interface between the two main concepts. Results indicated that experiences with mental illness stigma were contingent on the degree to which immigrants were able to participate in work to achieve "what mattered most" in their cultural context, i.e., accumulation of financial resources. Structural vulnerability e being situated in an inferior position when facing structural discrimination e made access to affordable mental health services challenging. As such, structural discrimination increased healthcare spending and interfered with financial accumulation, often resulting in future treatment nonadherence and enforcing mental health disparities. Study participants' internalizing their structurally-vulnerable position further led to a depreciated sense of self, resulting in a reduced capacity to advocate for healthcare system changes. Paradoxically, the multi-layered structural marginalization experienced by Chinese immigrants with mental illness allowed those who maintained capacity to work to retain social status even while holding a mental illness status. Mental health providers may prioritize work participation to shift service users' positions within the hierarchy of structural vulnerability.
Social Science & Medicine, 2008
The majority of theoretical models have defined stigma as occurring psychologically and limit its... more The majority of theoretical models have defined stigma as occurring psychologically and limit its negative effects to individual processes. This paper, via an analysis of how 'face' is embodied in China, deepens an articulation of how the social aspects of stigma might incorporate the moral standing of both individual and collective actors defined within a local context. We illustrate (1) how one's moral standing is lodged within a local social world; (2) how one's status as a 'moral' community member is contingent upon upholding intrapersonal and social-transactional obligations; and (3) how loss of face and fears of moral contamination might lead to a 'social death'. We first draw from Chinese ethnographies that describe the process of human cultivation before one can achieve fully 'moral' status in society. We integrate findings from empirical studies describing how social-exchange networks in China are strictly organized based on the reciprocation of favors, moral positioning, and 'face'. We further ground these Chinese constructs within a theoretical framework of different forms of capital, and discuss the severe social consequences that loss of face entails. By utilizing the examples of schizophrenia and AIDS to illustrate how loss of moral standing and stigma is interwoven in China, we propose a model highlighting changes in moral status to describe how stigma operates. We suggest that symbolic restoration of moral status for stigmatized groups takes place as local-level stigma interventions. By analyzing the moral aspects of 'face', we propose that across cultures, stigma is embedded in the moral experience of participants, whereby stigma is conceived as a fundamentally moral issue: stigmatized conditions threaten what matters most for those in a local world. We further propose that stigma jeopardizes an actor's ability to mobilize social capital to attain essential social statuses.
Current …, 1986
... Rechercher / Search. Titre du document / Document title. Social Origins of Distress and Disea... more ... Rechercher / Search. Titre du document / Document title. Social Origins of Distress and Disease : Depression, Neurasthenia, and Pain in Modern China Auteur(s) / Author(s). KLEINMAN A. ; ANDERSON JM ; FINKLER K. ; FRANKENBERG RJ ; YOUNG A. ; Résumé / Abstract. ...
Contributions to Indian Sociology, 1998
... Contributions to Indian Sociology DOI: 10.1177/006996679803200205 1998; 32; 237 Contributions... more ... Contributions to Indian Sociology DOI: 10.1177/006996679803200205 1998; 32; 237 Contributions to Indian Sociology Arthur Kleinman and Don Seeman The politics of moral practice in psychotherapy and religious healing ... Arthur Kleinman and Don Seeman ...
Intervention, Nov 1, 2008
In this article, we place the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Guidelines on Mental Health ... more In this article, we place the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings' within the historical context of trauma healing and humanitarian intervention. The IASC taskforce has done important work by bringing to the fore the cultural and local experiences of suffering in humanitarian intervention. The guidelines' recognition of suffering and social repair as a holistic experience is a significant boon to applied understandings of populations in crisis. Our ...
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Books by Arthur Kleinman
“This is a wonderful book on an extremely important subject. The social causes of individual suffering—in company or in isolation—get the attention and probing investigation they demand, both as a contribution to epistemology and as pointers to ways and means of remedial action. This is a much awaited—and beautifully written—book which should make a huge difference to the sad and unjust world in which we live.”—Amartya Sen, Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University
“A Passion for Society is a stirring rejection of the cult of dispassion in modern anthropology and sociology and a brisk rehabilitation of attempts to link fellow feeling to pragmatic (and, yes, humanitarian) efforts to lessen the suffering of others. This defense of caring and caregiving revives old lessons and offers new ones, burnishing the example of great social theorists and of almost forgotten ones. Wilkinson and Kleinman are not trying to win an argument, although they do, but rather to offer a hopeful and humane intellectual basis for what is, fundamentally and unapologetically, a moral stance: against indifference and cynicism and inaction, and for their opposites. This fierce book is both balm and compass.”—Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, Harvard Medical School, Partners In Health, The Brigham and Women’s Hospital
“The world is stuffed full of unbearable human misery. Every day billions of people in the world find themselves living in tragic desperation. What is to be done? How can a social science deal with this best? In this challenging, committed and original study, Iain Wilkinson and Arthur Kleinman provide a history and appreciation of the study of social suffering and urge us to place this at the heart of understanding society by putting compassion and practical care at its core. Critical of the formalism, distance, and coldness of both academic life and social science, the book creates new dialogues. It deserves to become a landmark in redirecting social science to work more passionately to make the world a kinder place.”—Ken Plummer, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Essex University
“In their analysis of ‘the problem of suffering,’ Wilkinson and Kleinman provide a thoroughly convincing argument for a new approach to social theory and social research practice—one that is compassionate, interventionist, and globally oriented, and thus better able to address the pressing issues that define our age.” —Alan Petersen, Professor of Sociology, Monash University
Papers by Arthur Kleinman
“This is a wonderful book on an extremely important subject. The social causes of individual suffering—in company or in isolation—get the attention and probing investigation they demand, both as a contribution to epistemology and as pointers to ways and means of remedial action. This is a much awaited—and beautifully written—book which should make a huge difference to the sad and unjust world in which we live.”—Amartya Sen, Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University
“A Passion for Society is a stirring rejection of the cult of dispassion in modern anthropology and sociology and a brisk rehabilitation of attempts to link fellow feeling to pragmatic (and, yes, humanitarian) efforts to lessen the suffering of others. This defense of caring and caregiving revives old lessons and offers new ones, burnishing the example of great social theorists and of almost forgotten ones. Wilkinson and Kleinman are not trying to win an argument, although they do, but rather to offer a hopeful and humane intellectual basis for what is, fundamentally and unapologetically, a moral stance: against indifference and cynicism and inaction, and for their opposites. This fierce book is both balm and compass.”—Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, Harvard Medical School, Partners In Health, The Brigham and Women’s Hospital
“The world is stuffed full of unbearable human misery. Every day billions of people in the world find themselves living in tragic desperation. What is to be done? How can a social science deal with this best? In this challenging, committed and original study, Iain Wilkinson and Arthur Kleinman provide a history and appreciation of the study of social suffering and urge us to place this at the heart of understanding society by putting compassion and practical care at its core. Critical of the formalism, distance, and coldness of both academic life and social science, the book creates new dialogues. It deserves to become a landmark in redirecting social science to work more passionately to make the world a kinder place.”—Ken Plummer, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Essex University
“In their analysis of ‘the problem of suffering,’ Wilkinson and Kleinman provide a thoroughly convincing argument for a new approach to social theory and social research practice—one that is compassionate, interventionist, and globally oriented, and thus better able to address the pressing issues that define our age.” —Alan Petersen, Professor of Sociology, Monash University