Medicine in the Stranglehold of Profit

Medicine in the Stranglehold of Profit: The threat to the art of healing and the social fabric and the new orientation needed for truly looking after health

Thomas Hardtmuth (author)

Translated by Richard Brinton

In this book Dr Hardtmuth chronicles the takeover of the medical field by private companies and corporations over the past decades, bringing the profit motive and conflicts of interest into health care to such an extent that there is a growing alienation of the helping professions from their own core identity. Human care, attention and appropriate help are increasingly hindered by the specifications and supposed constraints of economic logic and rationality…. The one-sided profit orientation has not only brought corruption into the health field; Hardtmuth further illustrates how income inequalities and inappropriately applied economic rationality are correlated with illnesses in people as well as ‘illnesses’ in wider society and the environment. Independent thinking, courage and reflection are urgently needed on the core value of a civil society based on mutual support…. In the Afterword, Dr House describes how a separation of economic, political and cultural/spiritual life (which includes health-care) is urgently needed and how a number of initiatives have recently been started which point in this direction.

Dr. med. Thomas Hardtmuth is a specialist in general surgery/thoracic surgery, freelance author, and long-time lecturer in health sciences and social medicine at the Baden-Wurttemberg University of Applied Sciences. He studied medicine at the TU and LMU Munich. He has been working as a doctor in various clinics in southern Germany since 1985, most recently as senior physician for general surgery and thoracic surgery at the Heidenheim Clinic. Virology and the role of viruses in nature and evolution is an area of research specialisation. Dr Hardtmuth has published numerous articles and books, most in German. …. Richard House, MA [Oxon], Ph.D. is a chartered psychologist and freelance educational consultant/campaigner in Stroud, UK. He was previously a Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood at the University of Winchester and lectured in psychotherapy and psychology at the University of Roehampton. He has published several books on education, as well as numerous articles and academic papers. He is editor of Self and Society: International Journal of Humanistic, Existential and Transpersonal Psychology.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ InterActions (15 May 2023)
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 100 pages
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 9781915594006
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.95 x 0.51 x 19.56 cm