Arthur KleinmanThinkers

Disaster is something which revivify's what really matters. Failure and catastrophe empower religion... religion, in turn, empowers people faced with adversity to overcome self-doubt and fear of failing, and to act in the world.

The Disaster is unable either to be mastered or conquered, but they can be understood, responded to, as ethical, religious, and aesthetic challenges.

Disease is defined against illness, which is a cultural phenomenon, disease refers to a set of scientific delimitations and categories assessed outside of social context.

Disease is typically distinguished from illness in the anthropological literature in this way: an illness is an innately human experience of symptoms and suffering while disease is an alteration in biological structure or functioning.

Experience is the felt flow of interpersonal communication and engagements.

Medical anthropology is not merely a critique of the bio-medical framework. It focuses also on the non-professional side of the health field and the meaning context of illness and health care.

Social suffering is when an individual perceives pain threatening the activities of daily life, but then resists that threat.

A Symbolic form is something like language, music and cultural images which belongs to both the social world of values and to the interior world of feelings.