Hippocratic Oaths: Medicine and its Discontents

Description

Poet, philosopher, novelist and physician, Professor Raymond Tallis is one of the world's foremost thinkers. In this book, for the first time, he brings together his diverse intellectual interests to address profoundly important questions about our well-being. Blending philosophy, polemic, and a lifetime's careful thought, Tallis presents a brilliant analysis of modern medicine, Hippocratic Oaths examines unflinchingly the disjunction between the health care we believe we are entitled to, and the difficult realities of what is possible. In this series of fiercely stimulating and impassioned arguments Tallis looks at the truth behind recent public health scares; why we continue to treat our bodies as machines, somehow separate from what makes us ourselves; and why the exploding popularity of alternative therapies is bad for doctors and patients alike. Hippocratic Oaths is the summation of a lifetime's thought and medical practice, by one of the most singular luminaries in the British scientific firmament.

Raymond Tallis was Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Manchester until 2006. A poet, novelist and philosopher, he was listed by The Economist in 2009 as one of twenty living polymaths. His most recent books include The Kingdom of Infinite Space, Michelangelo's Finger and Aping Mankind.

"Tallis...is a high achiever with a range of expertise that would leave Jonathan Miller gasping' Walter Ellis Sunday Times"