My Account Ask a Librarian Support & Training Help Feedback Logoff < Back to Search Results [Departments: Book Reviews] « Previous Article Table of Contents Next Article » The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease Issue: Volume 191(12), December 2003, pp 836-837 Copyright: © 2003 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc. Publication Type: [Departments: Book Reviews] ISSN: 0022-3018 Accession: 00005053-200312000-00012 Theater of Disorder: Patients, Doctors, and the Construction of Illness Andersen, Barbara BA Author Information Department of Sociology and Anthropology Simon Fraser University Burnaby, Canada Theater of Disorder: Patients, Doctors, and the Construction of Illness Wenegrat, Brant (2001). New York: Oxford University Press, vi + 292 pp. $35.00 The author of this volume couches his examination of illness roles— what anthropologists call culture-bound syndromes—within an extended theatrical metaphor that points to the essentially social, performed nature of human behavior. Deeply skeptical about the blossoming of new syndromes, Theater of Disorder attempts to characterize the roles, cues, and stage directions orchestrating encounters between sick people and their healers. Illness roles, produced through the interaction of patient, doctor, and the demands of the social world, are best understood as performances in pursuit of unseen objectives. Brant Wenegrat’s synthesis of clinical, experimental, historical, and ethnographic data largely avoids abnormal psychology in favor of a more ecumenical model of social roles and benefits. Tools Article as PDF (191KB) Complete Reference Print Preview Email Jumpstart Email PDF Jumpstart Email Article Text Save Article Text Add to My Projects Annotate Find Citing Articles Find Similar About this Journal Request Permissions Search Journals Books Multimedia My Workspace Mobile