"Imre Lázár's new book represents a bold and provocative attempt to integrate the various strands of anthropology: the evolutionary and the symbolic, the materialist and the idealist. To this end, he advocates a 'tetrahedronic sphere' that seeks to describe and account for the 'basic ecological interrelations of Nature, Society, Technology and Ideas,' while at the same time always leaving room for the spiritual as well. This approach is delivered by means of a number of lectures that Professor Lázár has held over the past decades in the field of Medical Anthropology, broadly conceived. Thus, many of the chapters are concerned with embodiment, with the relationship between mind and body, and with physical, mental, and spiritual health. The first few essays focus explicitly on the body as an object of various healing systems and techniques, while the second part deals with birth, motherhood, and attachment, and the third part with modern dystopias, in which the body-centeredness of the first part gives way to an approach focusing on the spirit, its sorrows and its attempts to secure freedom. All in all, this book offers a number of highly original ideas regarding anthropology in general and medical anthropology in particular, along with much wisdom about the human condition." William S. SaxProfessor and Head, Department of Anthropology, South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg"Truly valuable books share a characteristic whereby the reader is tasked with half of the work. Lazar's book will enlighten and challenge in equal measure. Its central tenet is attachment, offering multi-faceted explorations of human relationships based on cultural history, philosophy, literature and biomedical sciences. The book aims to facilitate our re-enchantment with each other, a very timely antidote in today's alarmingly isolationist world. A must-read for all 'helping professionals' in the widest possible meaning of the term, Imre Lazar's work provides particularly valuable insights into the understanding of the interaction of body and mind. Readers from all fields will gain new appreciation of the Shakespearean question 'What a piece of work is Man?'"Péter MolnárEmeritus Professor, Faculty of Public Health, Debrecen University
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