Using Alternative Therapies

This book provides a distinctive sociological inquiry into the perspectives and social issues surrounding the use of alternative therapies. Dr. Low presents the experiences of twenty-one Canadians who use alternative approaches to health care. Her study foregrounds the lay perspective by using a symbolic interactionist approach, which emphasizes individuals' own understanding of reality as a basis for their actions. Dr. Low analyses why the participants in the study came to use alternative therapies; the ideologies informing the models of health and healing they espouse; the impact these beliefs have on them, and the implications of their experiences for Canadian health care policy.

Jacqueline Low is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology, University of New Brunswick.