The Body Silent: The Different World of the Disabled

By Robert Francis Murphy

Book Overview

"The most powerful book of its kind I've ever read.... Extraordinary powers of observation, generalization, and depth."--Oliver Sacks, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat Winner of the Columbia University Lionel Trilling Award. Robert Murphy was in the prime of his career as an anthropologist when he felt the first symptom of a malady that would ultimately take him on an odyssey stranger than any field trip to the Amazon: a tumor of the spinal cord that progressed slowly and irreversibly into quadriplegia. In this gripping account, Murphy explores society's fears, myths, and misunderstandings about disability, and the damage they inflict. He reports how paralysis--like all disabilities--assaults people's identity, social standing, and ties with others, while at the same time making the love of life burn even more fiercely.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393320421
• ISBN13: 9780393320428
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

An incredible book by an incredible person...

This is one of my books that I bought and put aside to read later. I don't remember how long ago I bought it but I am certainly glad that I gave it a second chance to read it before discarding it. I am now not planning to sell this book, as it is too important a volume on disability in society, and it certainly applies to the bioethical and eduethical work I do on the side of my 'regular' job of teaching and writing. Murphy is unlike me in that he came upon his disability later in life, while I was born basically deaf and remained that way for the first 13 years of my life before getting a hearing aid at the age of 13. Murphy had to deal with a slow-growing tumor that entwined itself into his spinal cord. Unlike many tumors that can be excised with surgery, his was such that the possibility of removing it also came with the possibility of losing everything else, including his life or the ability to continue to do his important work. Like many of us who have chosen not to take the risk of surgery and who don't believe that to be disabled is worse than to be dead, Murphy worked with and around his progressive disabling and was able to give the world another 15 years of his wisdom in cultural anthropology. This book is a must-read for any person with a disability, no matter when they became disabled. Murphy had the background of an academic anthropologist, with many years of successful teaching and writing for major journals in anthropology and culture. He had also written major books, one of which continues to be used in most universities on women and gender in primitive societies. So in coming into the genre of disability studies, he brought to the field a first-rate mind and ability to write so others can understand difficult concepts. Murphy's book is not the usual autobiography that one usually expects, but rather explores disability (specifically his, but he introduces others and also the culture) without a single shard of either self-pity or 'hey, look at me' attitude that is so often written about in media (where the media puts someone with a disability on a pedestal that is unrealistic of the very real problems that those of us with disabilities face daily). He writes presenting his disablement as a fait-accompli, dealing with the problems as they arose...and in some cases, he ignored his health situation to the point of putting him at risk for infection from bedsores because he was too busy teaching. Like Murphy states, that wasn't courage as often as it was just not wanting to take the time to have his physical body get in the way of what he was trying to do. In treating his disablement with this attitude, he did become the courageous person that he presented to the public...and I wish so badly I had had the opportunity to meet him and hear him speak. Like so many others such as Michael Fox and Christopher REeve, Murphy was a non-disabled person whose close encounters with his own disablement led him to become a voice in a minority

a celebration of life worth living

As a graduate student in anthropology, I came to know and respect Bob Murphy more than any other scholar. Of the texts he wrote, The Body Silent, stands apart in that it says much about the man, anthropology, disability in American society, and life itself. It will deeply touch a wide variety of readers, and for those that knew him, will bring tears to their eyes. As to its impact on what is now known as disability studies, it put the discipline on the academic agenda. As such, it is a seminal text and is a must for anyone thinking of entering the field.

Incredible

This wonderfully written book offers rare insight into the world of disability, the health care system and society. The late Robert Murphy, an anthropologist, provided an "insider's" view of a life changing experience. It is a fascinating read. Nursing,medical and other health professional students can spend an entire semester dissecting the anatomy and physiology of disability through Murphy's perspective.

5 Stars are not enough!

The late Dr. Murphy's anthropological account of his journey into the world of the disabled should be required reading for all courses related to Medical Anthropology and Disability Studies. Dr. Murphy brings to life the social liminality - the status of "otherness" of the handicapped, and takes the reader into a culture largely (and wrongly) ignored by anthropology.

I found it profound and inspiring.

I was moved by Robert Murphy's journey from the world of the well, fully functional academic anthropologist to that of the paraplegic. Murphy brings an anthropologist's scientific objectivity to his exploration of the impact of his increasing disability on his own life and that of those around him.The book reminded me, in some respects, of John Gunther's _Death_Be_Not_Proud_ which was a celebration of his son's coming to terms with his own illness and looming death from a brain tumor.Like Gunther, Murphy shares with us insights into the human condition that are not otherwise easily obtained. For example, Murphy observes (pg 222):"There may be no final meanings, but we do live in a meaningful universe; otherwise we could not abide intelligent existence. Our meanings, however, are humanly contrived and quite arbitrary, lending a spurious but useful legitimacy to our lives, our aspirations and our actions."