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With Shaking Hands
Price: $24.95
Subtitle: Aging with
Parkinson's Disease in America's Heartland
Author: Samantha
Solimeo
Subject: Anthropology,
Health
and Medicine
Paper ISBN: 978-0-8135-4544-8
Cloth ISBN: 978-0-8135-4543-1
Pages: 232 pages
Publication Date: May 2009
Series:
Studies
in
Medical Anthropology
Praise for
With Shaking Hands
"A richly detailed and
touching ethnographic portrayal of the experiences of elderly people
with Parkinson's disease. It is pertinent reading for researchers and
clinicians as well as students, especially but not exclusively those in
medical anthropology."—Judith C.
Barker, University of California, San Francisco
"An important and excellent book that describes the experience of
Parkinson's disease from the inside: how patients and their family
members view it. Thus, it forms a singular contribution to the
scientific literature on individual experience and disease."—Robert L.
Rubinstein, author of Singular
Paths: Single Men Living Alone
"This book is at once a scholarly
discourse on an ethnographic study of a cohort of Iowans with
Parkinson’s disease,and a primer on medical anthropology, Parkinson’s
disease, and ethnographic research methodology. Recommended."—Choice,
Nov 2009
"A welcome addition to the
literature, focusing on the experience of older adults who are living
with this unpredictable, disabling and stigmatizing condition. The
author writes crisply, and yet with compassion and sensitivity, as she
offers her readers access into the world of ordinary people who often
display extraordinary strength and dignity under traumatic life
circumstances."—Contemporary Sociology
Description:
Far from celebrity media spotlight,
ordinary individuals, many older and less advantaged, suffer the
disabling pain of Parkinson’s Disease (PD), an illness whose
progressive symptoms often mimic old age and cause mobility impairment,
communication barriers, and social isolation.
At the heart of With Shaking Hands
is the account of elder Americans in rural Iowa who have been diagnosed
with PD. With a focus on the impact of chronic illness on an aging
population, Samantha Solimeo combines clear and accessible prose with
qualitative and quantitative research to demonstrate how PD
accelerates, mediates, and obscures patterns of aging. She explores how
ideas of what to expect in older age influence and direct
interpretations of one’s body.
This sensitive and groundbreaking work unites theories of disease with
modern conceptions of the body in biological and social terms. PD, like
other chronic disorders, presents a special case of embodiment which
challenge our thinking about how such diseases should be researched and
how they are experienced.
About the Author:
Samantha Solimeo is a Health Research Science Specialist at the Center for Research in the Implementation of Innovative Strategies in Practice at the iowa City VA Medical Center.
Relevant Links:
NC State Sociology and Anthropology website
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Price: $24.95
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