Therapeutic Landscapes

The therapeutic landscape concept, first introduced early in the 1990s, has been widely employed in health/medical geography and gaining momentum in various health-related disciplines. This is the first book published in several years, and provides an introduction to the concept and its applications. Written by health/medical geographers and anthropologists, it addresses contemporary applications in the natural and built environments; for special populations, such as substance abusers; and in health care sites, a new and evolving area - and provides an array of critiques or contestations of the concept and its various applications. The conclusion of the work provides a critical evaluation of the development and progress of the concept to date, signposting the likely avenues for future investigation.

Allison Williams is Associate Professor at the School of Geography and Earth Sciences, McMaster University, Canada.

Contents: Preface; Introduction: the continuing maturation of the therapeutic landscape concept, Allison M. Williams; Part 1 Traditional Therapeutic Landscapes: Natural and Built Environments: Ambiguous landscapes: sun, risk and recreation on New Zealand beaches, Damian Collins and Robin Kearns; The experimental economy of stillness: places of retreat in contemporary Britain, David Conradson; From Rishikesh to Yogaville: the globalization of therapeutic landscapes, Anne-Cécile Hoyez; Healing landscapes in the Alps: Heidi by Johanna Spyri, Allison M. Williams. Part 2 Therapeutic Geographies for Special Populations: Making clean and sober places: the intersections of therapeutic landscapes and substance abuse treatment, Geoffrey DeVeteuil, Robert D. Wilton and Shaun Klassen; Anxious subjectivities and spaces of care: therapeutic geographies of the UK National Phobics Society, Joyce Davidson and Hester Parr; Preventative applications of the therapeutic landscapes concept in urban residential settings: a quantitative application, Matthias Braubach; A 'family friendly' place: family leisure, identity and wellbeing - the zoo as therapeutic landscape, Bonnie Hallman. Part 3 Applications in Health Care Sites: Applications of concepts of therapeutic landscapes to the design of hospitals in the UK: the example of a mental health facility in London, Wil Gesler and Sarah Curtis; The writing's on the wall: decoding the interior spaces of the hospital waiting room, Valorie A. Crookes and Joshua Evans; Therapeutic landscapes for older people: care with commodification, liminality, and ambiguity, Malcolm P. Cutchin; Home as therapeutic landscape: family caregivers providing palliative care at home, Rhonda Donovan and Allison Williams. Part 4 Contesting Landscapes as Therapeutic: Contemporary Advances: Gay bathhouses: the transgression of health in therapeutic places, Gavin J. Andrews and Dave Holmes; The therapeutic landscapes of the Kaqchikel of San Lucas Tolimán, Guatemala, J