Incommunicable

“In Incommunicable, Charles L. Briggs provokes readers to consider a deeper understanding of the political, cultural, and economic structurings over the long term of medicine, biomedical science, and global health as well as how these structurings set the grounds for their deconstruction and failure. Language and suffering, meaning and treatment, channel power to reshape health and disease and biomedical science so as to reproduce inequality. Briggs powerfully shows how this works. A book of real importance!” - Arthur Kleinman, Harvard University

"Kudos to Charles L. Briggs for his compelling account of health officials’ failure to communicate with the public. From COVID-19 to cholera outbreaks, critical medical information is ‘incommunicable’ to laypeople and communities with mounting health problems. The book is a heartbreaker, as clinicians fail again and again to listen to patients’ perspectives, and the ‘ruptures of understanding’ illness and death widen.” - Elinor Ochs, Distinguished Research Professor, University of California, Los Angeles

"Incommunicable offers a comprehensive exploration of how systemic inequities shape communication in healthcare contexts, drawing from historical figures and COVID-19 case studies to critically examine biomedicine's communicative practices. The book serves as both a critique and a call to action, urging stakeholders in healthcare to pursue communicative justice for more equitable systems." - Myles Joyce, E3W Review of Books

"Incommunicable presents a critical analysis of the intersection of communication, health, and justice. The book excels in its interdisciplinary approach and theoretical depth, drawing from a wide range of intellectual traditions to explore the historical and contemporary dynamics of medical communication." - Lucía Isabel Stavig, Journal of Folklore Research

"The book offers a rich interdisciplinary insight into issues of health, communication, and justice." - Tjaša Franko, Anthropological Notebooks