Limits to Medicine

Limits to Medicine, also known as Medical Nemesis, is a book by Ivan Illich, first published in 1975. Illich claimed that medicine had increasingly gained social control over people's lives, leading to iatrogenic effects, with physicians as the key players in the process.

Central Idea

The central idea of the book is that medicine - especially Western medicine - is not as good and effective as physicians make it out to be. It has its inherent weaknesses, which are often deliberately suppressed by the medical establishment. Consider the introduction of the book, which begins with this statement, "The medical establishment has become a major threat to health".