Healing Places

By (author) Wilbert M. Gesler

Not available to order

Publication date:

01 March 2003

Length of book:

144 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781461665403

Is there healing beyond the walls of a modern hospital? Healing Places looks at how different environments affect our physical, mental, spiritual, social, and emotional healing. It sets out four dimensions found in healing environments—natural, built, symbolic, and social—and applies these ideas to three places that achieved a lasting reputation for healing: Epidauros in Greece, Bath in England, and Lourdes in France. Gesler's engaging and innovative approach draws from a variety of fields, from geography and environmental psychology to medicine, sociology, and anthropology. Comparing these healing places to today's hospital, Gesler shows that place and healing are inextricably linked and advocates that health care should go well beyond biomedical solutions.

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Epidauros: Asclepius and Dream Healing
Chapter 3 Bath: Healing Mineral Springs
Chapter 4 Lourdes: Healing Pilgrimages
Chapter 5 Therapeutic Hospital Environments
Chapter 6 Conclusion

Healing Places asserts emphatically and eloquently that place matters to health. The case studies provide fascinating evidence that links between healing and place are well grounded in history and are now being reconsidered in hospital design. This book will be important reading for researchers, teachers, and professionals with an interest in health care settings. [It] adds weight to a major shift in contemporary thinking: reassessing the links between place and health.