"The Second Edition of Medicine as Culture" provides a broad overview of the way medicine is experienced, perceived and socially constructed in western societies. Drawing on the tradition of the sociology of health and illness, Deborah Lupton directs readers to an understanding of medicine, health care, illness and disease from a sociocultural perspective. At a time of increasing disillusionment with scientific medicine and the mythology of the beneficent, god-like physician, there is also - paradoxically - a growing dependence on biomedicine to provide the answers to social as well as medical problems. This book illuminates why attitudes to medicine are characterized by such strong paradoxes, and why issues of disease, illness and the medical encounter are surrounded by controversy, conflict, power struggles and emotion.In this second edition, each chapter has been extensively updated to take account of recent research and theoretical developments. New material has been added on postmodernist theory; the male body; and the new genetics. As well as reviewing and critiquing the dominant theoretical approaches in the sociology of health and illness, "Medicine as Culture, Second Edition" also includes the following key topics: socio-cultural analysis of health, illness and medicine; elite and media representations of illness; the body in medicine; the language and visual imagery of medicine, illness and disease; and, feminist perspectives.Integrating cultural studies, social history and contemporary theories of the body, "Medicine as Culture, Second Edition" will be essential reading for students and academics in the sociology of health and illness, the sociology of consumption and everyday life, medical anthropology, the history of medicine, health communication, women's studies, nursing studies and cultural studies.

黛博拉·乐普顿，曾就职于悉尼大学、查尔斯特大学和西悉尼大学，目前就职于堪培拉大学新闻与媒体研究中心。她在社会学、新闻传播学和文化研究领域的跨学科研究做出了众多探索性和开拓性的成果，涉足医学、健康、疾病和公共卫生的各个方面，探讨了风险、身体、食物、肥胖、情感、女性主义以及儿童与母亲等诸多前沿议题。她*有论*17本，发表学术论文130余篇。其中影响颇为广泛的*作包括《风险》(Risk)、《风险与社会文化理论》(Pissk and Sociocultural Theory)、《情感的自我：社会文化探索》(The Emotional Self: A Sociocultuml Exploratl’on)、《医学的文化研究》(Meedicine as Culture)等。近期她正在进行与数字化和大数据时代有关的健康研究，并积*倡导将社交媒体作为学术研究的平台。