'Sacraments' in the Hospital: Exploring the Magic and Religion of Recovery.

This article proposes to look at the ritual dimension of hospital work, a chain of words and acts, which fill patients with hope for a 'future life'. Conventional boundaries between magic, science and religion are reconsidered. The author argues that biomedicine, far from being a cultural no-man's land, represents the basic values of culture. It provides a space where doctors, nurses and patients find their deepest convictions and values demonstrated and confirmed. Medical words and interventions express and re-create people's belief in the canons of science and biomedicine as ultimate truth. Pointing out the religious dimension of medicine in no way belittles medicine's role and therapeutic efficacy. Rather it provides us with a better understanding of the 'mechanics' of recovery.