Table of Contents

Acknowledgment ix

1 Rethinking Culture in Health Communication 1

2 Cultural Consciousness I: Magic Consciousness and Emotions in Health 26

3 Cultural Consciousness II: Mythic Connection and the Social Meanings of Health and Illness 51

4 Cultural Consciousness III: Perspectival Thinking and the Emergence of Modern Medicine 80

5 Cultural Consciousness IV: Integral Fusion and Health Professionals in Healthcare Settings 107

6 Culture and Health Behaviors: Culture Assumptions in Health Theories and Practices 138

7 Health Literacy: Cultural Approaches to Health Behaviors and Decision-Making 163

8 Group-Based Identities: Cultural Approaches to Social Stigma and Health Practices 192

9 Uncertainty in Health and Illness: From Perspectival Thinking to Integral Fusion 226

10 Social Support: Understanding Supportive Relationships Through Cultural Perspectives 257

11 Transformative Technologies: Cultural Approaches to Technologies in Health Contexts 293

12 Health Disparities: Observations and Solutions Through Different Cultural Approaches 328

13 When Cultural Perspectives Collide: Community-Based Health Interventions in Marginalized Populations 368

14 Distributive Justice: Embedding Equity and Justice in Structural Barriers and Health Policies 404

Index 445

About the Author

Elaine Hsieh, Ph.D., J.D. is Professor at the Department of Communication, University of Oklahoma, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. An award-winning author, Fulbright Scholar, and NIH-funded researcher, she has published extensively to examine the intersections of culture, language, health, and medicine in interpersonal and cross-cultural contexts. She is currently Associate Editor for Health Communication. She has served as the Chair of the Health Communication Division at the National Communication Association and as Associate Editor for the Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health (2010-2017).

Eric Mark Kramer, Ph.D. is Presidential Professor of Communication and Affiliate Faculty in the College of International and Area Studies and the Department of Film and Media Studies at the University of Oklahoma. He is Senior Editor of The Oxford University Research Encyclopedia on Communication, International and Global Communication, Associate Editor of the Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, a founding Director of the EU Institute for Studies in Comparative Civilizations, author and editor of 11 books.