Product Description
The grandmother granddaughter conversation examined in this book makes explicit what the detailed study of interaction reveals about two social problems–”bulimia” and “grandparent caregiving.” For the first time, systematic attention is given to interactional activities through which family members display ordinary yet contradictory concerns about health and illness:
* a grandmother’s (who is also a registered nurse) attempts to initiate, confront, and remedy h… More >>
Conversations About Illness: Family Preoccupations With Bulimia
#1 by cortezhill on April 16, 2010 - 11:52 pm
The grandmother-granddaughter conversation examined in this book makes explicit what the detailed study of interaction reveals about two social problems – “bulimia” and “grandparent caregiving.” For the first time, systematic attention is given to interactional activities through which family members display ordinary yet contradictory concerns about health and illness. Through analysis of a single audio-recorded and transcribed conversations, the altogether pervasive and often troubled co-existence of family medical predicaments is revealed by treating families as primordial institutional systems whose talk about real or idealized medical concerns is little understood – including attempts to impose and disregard constraints regarding health behavior as displays of institutional orientations and priorities.
From a careful review of extant theories seeking to explain eating disorders and grandparent caregiving, it becomes clear that an overreliance on self-reported experiences has promoted underspecified understandings of “social contexts” – conceptualizations devoid of real-time constituent practices and interactional consequences mirroring how families manages daily affairs and understandings regarding health and illness. Shifting from inherently individualized models of bodily disease or psychosocial illness, attention is given to the kinds of embodied interactional activities family members bring to one another’s attention as practical and significant reasons informing actions.
Implications of this investigation extend well beyond “bulimia” and “grandparent caregiving” to a vast array of casual and institutional involvements between family members, friends, and bureaucratic representatives such as those involved in long-term caregiving, dealing with cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, or conducting psychiatric interview and HIV/AIDS counseling sessions. Findings regarding the nature of caregiving, will be of value for researchers focusing on language and social interaction, health practitioners, and families alike.
— from book’s back cover
Rating: 5 / 5