Healing Places

Front Cover
Rowman & Littlefield, 2003 - Health & Fitness - 131 pages
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.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
Epidauros Asclepius and Dream Healing
21
Bath Healing Mineral Springs
43
Lourdes Healing Pilgrimages
65
Therapeutic Hospital Environments
83
Conclusion
103
Works Cited
115
Index
127
About the Author
Copyright

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About the author (2003)

Wilbert M. Gesler is professor emeritus of geography at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a visiting professor of geography at Queen Mary, University of London.