Healing Places

Is there healing beyond the walls of a modern hospital? Healing Places looks at how different environments affect our physical, mental, spiritual, social, and emotional healing. It sets out four dimensions found in healing environments—natural, built, symbolic, and social—and applies these ideas to three places that achieved a lasting reputation for healing: Epidauros in Greece, Bath in England, and Lourdes in France. Gesler's engaging and innovative approach draws from a variety of fields, from geography and environmental psychology to medicine, sociology, and anthropology. Comparing these healing places to today's hospital, Gesler shows that place and healing are inextricably linked and advocates that health care should go well beyond biomedical solutions.

Wil Gesler examines how different environments affect physical, mental, spiritual, social, and emotional components of healing.

Wilbert M. Gesler is professor emeritus of geography at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a visiting professor of geography at Queen Mary, University of London.