Pathologies of Power

Paul Farmer is Professor of Medical Anthropology at Harvard Medical School and Founding Director of Partners In Health. Among his books are Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues (California, 1999), The Uses of Haiti (1994), and AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame (California, 1992). Farmer is the winner of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" award and the Margaret Mead Award for his contributions to public anthropology. He recently held the Blaise Pascal International Chair at the College de France. Amartya Sen, whose work challenges conventional market-driven economic paradigms, is the winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in economics. He teaches at Trinity College, Cambridge University.

• Foreword by Amartya SenAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPART I. BEARING WITNESS1. On Suffering and Structural ViolenceSocial and Economic Rights in the Global Era2. Pestilence and RestraintGuantánamo, AIDS, and the Logic of Quarantine3. Lessons from Chiapas4. A Plague on All Our Houses?Resurgent Tuberculosis inside Russia’s PrisonsPART II. ONE PHYSICIAN’S PERSPECTIVE ON HUMAN RIGHTS5. Health, Healing, and Social JusticeInsights from Liberation Theology6. Listening for Prophetic VoicesA Critique of Market-Based Medicine7. Cruel and UnusualDrug-Resistant Tuberculosis as Punishment8. New MalaiseMedical Ethics and Social Rights in the Global Era9. Rethinking Health and Human RightsTime for a Paradigm ShiftAfterwordNotesBibliographyCreditsIndex

"In his compelling book, Farmer captures the central dilemma of our times - the increasing disparities of health and well-being within and among societies. While all member countries of the United Nations denounce the gross violations of human rights perpetrated by those who torture, murder, or imprison without due process, the insidious violations of human rights due to structural violence involving the denial of economic opportunity, decent housing, or access to health care and education are commonly ignored. Pathologies of Power makes a powerful case that our very humanity is threatened by our collective failure to end these abuses." - Robert S. Lawrence, President of Physicians for Human Rights and Edyth Schoenrich Professor of Preventive Medicine at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University "This is an angry and a hopeful book, and, like everything Dr. Farmer has written, it has both passion and authority. Pathologies of Power is an eloquent plea for a working definition of human rights that would not neglect the most basic rights of all: food, shelter, and health. This plea has special potency because it comes from Dr. Farmer, a person who has proven that the dream of universal and comprehensive human rights is possible, and who has brought food, shelter, health, and hope to some of the poorest people on this earth." - Tracy Kidder, author of Mountains beyond Mountains: Healing the World: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer"