Self-Medication and Society

Based on fieldwork conducted in France, this book examines the material, cognitive, symbolic and social dimensions of the recourse to self-medication, considering the motivations and practices of the subjects and what these reveal about their relationship with the medical institution, while addressing the question of open access to medicines. A rigorous analysis both of the social treatment of the notion of autonomy ever present in the discourses promoting self-medication, and the strategies adopted by individuals to manage the risks of medicines and increase their efficacy, Self-Medication and Society will appeal to sociologists and anthropologists with interests in health, illness, the body and medicine.