Modern Myths and Medical Consumerism The Asclepius Complex Lanfranchi [Hardcover]

Modern Myths and Medical Consumerismis concerned with the loss of a sense of limit in technological medicine today, and the way in which the denial of death leads to an uncontrollable, consumeristic multiplication of needs. Taking its starting point from C. G. Jungs analytical psychology, the book gives a symbolic interpretation based on archetypal, philosophical and socio-psychoanalytic ideas developed through the authors personal experience, moving from the medical to the psychoanalytical paradigm.

Lanfranchi depicts ideal sources of medicine, based on archetypal material drawn from Greek myth, and discusses the progressive steps of the doctors consciousness evolution up to contemporary times. Critiquing current medicine and its modern myths, the book suggests the prevailing model of economic development is unsustainable, and provides prospects of a more contained ecological medicine and an ethical approach that will allow readers to reflect and move towards a more qualified attitude to mortality.

The book meets the need to transform medicine into a critical domain of human experience, capable of providing essential services consistent with the naturalness of death and environmental sustainability. As such, it will be vital reading to academics in the fields of psychotherapy, analytical psychology, psychiatry and medicine, and those with a philosophical or sociological background.

Introduction PART I A metapsychology of the doctors consciousness 1. The story of Asclepius 2. Alfred Zieglers archetypal medicine PART II Medicine and society in our time 1. Modern myths in medicine 2. Narcissuss mirror 3. The illusory nature of concretism 4. Considerations on courage PART III Life hanging by a thread 1. Illness as an experience of the soul 2. The globalization of medicine: towards an ecological medicine

Modern Myths and Medical Consumerismconsiders medicine from a valÓ(