Lecture 1: An Introduction to Complexity

Question 1

Define medical humanities (Whitehead and Woods, 2016)

Answer 1

a series of intersections, exchanges and entanglements between the biomedical sciences, the arts, the humanities and the social sciences

Question 2

What is the world health organisation definition of health?

Answer 2

a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity

Question 3

What is a political economy definition of health?

Answer 3

access to and control over the basic material and non-material resources that sustain and promote life at a high level of satisfaction

Question 4

What is a medical anthropology definition of health?

Answer 4

a set of common sense ideas which we have all been learning since childhood about out bodily processes, the way in which we monitor them, and how we describe them