Foundations of Biosocial Health

Stigma and Illness Interactions

By (author) James Ziegler Contributions by Nicholas Emard, Theodore Gideonse, Seung Yong Han, Shir Lerman Ginzburg, Harrison M. K. Maithya, Ruthanne Marcus, Gerald McKinley, Bayla Ostrach, Mary A. Ott, Elizabeth J. Pfeiffer, Merrill Singer, Alexandra Brewis, Sarah Trainer, Kara Wools-Kaloustian, Amber Wutich Edited by Shir Lerman Ginzburg, Bayla Ostrach, Merrill Singer

Not available to order

Publication date:

04 May 2017

Length of book:

244 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498552127

The chapters in Foundations of Biosocial Health: Stigma and Illness Interactions, drawn primarily from medical anthropology, highlight the diverse ways in which various stigmatized health conditions interact with social inequalities and stigma to form syndemics. The authors delineate multiple examples of stigma-driven syndemics to demonstrate both the nature of disease interactions and how stigma contributes to, promotes, exacerbates, or perpetuates a syndemic. In so doing, the authors also address how stigma translates from a social condition to various biological conditions. The authors’ contributions cover a variety of topics, including HIV, substance use, obesity, depression, homelessness, poverty,and political oppression. This book is recommended for scholars of anthropology, sociology, psychology, political science, and public health.

Chapter 1: The Role of Drug User Stigmatization in the Making of Drug-Related Syndemics
Chapter 2: Perception and Discrimination: The Biomedical Foundations of a Syndemic of Substance Abuse, Violence and Suicide Among Aboriginal People in Ontario, Canada
Chapter 3: Disordered Minds and Disordered Bodies: Stigma, Depression, & Obesity Syndemic in Puerto Rico
Chapter 4: Obesity, Depression, and Weight-Related Stigma Syndemics
Chapter 5: The PHAMILIS Stigma Syndemic among Homeless Women
Chapter 6: Dangerous Bodies, Unpredictable Minds: HIV/AIDS, Mental Disorders, and Stigma Syndemics in Western Kenya
Chapter 7: Biomedical Moralities: HIV Community Stigma and Risks for HIV/STI Syndemics
Chapter 8: Methamphetamine Addiction, HIV infection, and Gay Men: Stigma and Suffering

In Foundations of Biosocial Health the role of stigma as a powerful and enduring social-structural factor in health is highlighted and underscored. Through eloquent case studies on substance abuse, obesity, and HIV/AIDS, the authors discuss how the psychological and emotional scarring of stigmatization can result on poor physical and mental health, and that health is ultimately best understood by using a framework that examines the interactions between human biology and the social environment. Given that recent research is showing the linkage between racism (and discrimination) and adverse health, this book is timely and highly informative.