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Dr. Byron Good is a professor of Medical Anthropology at Harvard University. “Dr. Good’s present work focuses on research and mental health services development in Asian societies, particularly Indonesia. He has been a frequent visiting professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Gadjah Mada University, in Jogyakarta, Indonesia. He has conducted research with colleagues there on the early phases of psychotic illness for more than 10 years, and is co-director of the International Pilot Study of the Onset of Psychosis (IPSOS)” (Harvard bio).

This article seek to find out why treatable conditions are untreated or under-treated in third world countries despite the plethora of known treatments. The importance of anthropology is emphasized in solving these types of problems.

1) The case of epilepsy is given

2) Studies are used that concur with given case examples are used

3) An analysis of the evidence is given

1)  “Our goal in collaborating with this project was to develop a set of anthropologically oriented case studies, drawn from a community sample (in contrast to more common clinical studies).”

2)  “We invited persons identified as suffering seizure disorders, along with their families, to tell us stories about their illness and to describe their illness experiences - to tell us about their seizures, their efforts to find effective treatment, the responses to their condition by persons in their community, and the effects of the illness on their lives.”

3)  “Data from this study provide the opportunity for addressing not only problems of medical care and public health, but for reflecting on theoretical and methodological questions central to this book as well.”

Interviews, data analysis, outside studies and research are all used to formulate the arguments in this article.

Emergency response is not addressed in this article. But the information provided could be useful for disaster relief workers operating in evironments like these.

Although I had issues finding references to this particular chapter, the larger work that it is a part of (Medicine, Rationality and Experience) is cited by nearly 3,000 other articles according to Google Scholar.

The bibliography was not attached to the article, nor could I find one.

I followed up on: the availability of medicine in 3rd world countries, the success of treating patients in less developed countries, and the complications of suspicion of western medicine in these areas.

Most of the data was collected through the stories that the people told the researchers. This was the best way for them to collect data, since most conditions are best told through stories. They were then able to pull numbers out or ask specific questions catered to the story.