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Shipwreck: a tour-de-force of scientific and historical writing

May 8, 2021 by David Healy Leave a Comment

Producing such a book was an act of courage, determination, and humanity

Shipwreck Review by Jon Thompson

Shipwreck is a magnificent work, a tour-de-force of scientific and historical writing, and also of literature in its precision, clarity, breadth, depth, fast pace, compelling arguments, and wealth of metaphors and analogies throughout. The latter help focus readers’ active attention on the facts laid out in each section and paragraph. Producing such a book was an act of courage, determination, and humanity. Healy’s discussions and analyses are splendidly clear and incisive, as well as admirably comprehensive. I’m glad to have been of some assistance, but no one other than David Healy could have written Shipwreck.

Healy’s eloquence easily exceeds mine and weaved together many more strands (history, technology, health, medicine, commerce, politics, science, society …) over a long time frame. Healy explains central issues I had not previously appreciated, for example, that data sequestration is more significant than patent protection in generating and sustaining those features of our current healthcare system that are unhealthy.

Shipwreck’s explanation of operationalism and its malign influences—not only in healthcare and medicine but also in other aspects of individual and collective life—should be instructive to many readers. And so also should its compelling exposition of risk reduction as commercial, medical, political, or other propaganda with its many adverse effects.

Jon Thompson, Professor Emeritus
University of New Brunswick


Buy “Shipwreck of the Singular” on Amazon

Shipwreck of the Singular

Shipwreck of the Singular: Healthcare’s Castaways
by David Healy

Shipwreck of the Singular:

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