Pathologies of power is a 2003 book on human rights by american physician anthropologist and pioneer of global health paul farmer focusing on some of the worlds most vulnerable populations the book seeks to refine popular notions of what the term human rights really means and what its scholarly pursuits have yet to understand and fix. Pathologies of power chapter summaries may pathologies of power chapter summaries pathologies of power is a 2003 book on human rights by american physician anthropologist and pioneer of global health paul farmer focusing on some of the worlds most vulnerable populations the book seeks to. Pathologies of power health human rights and the new war on the poor paul farmer chapter 1 on suffering and structural violence social and economic rights in the global era growth of gnp or of industrial incomes can of course be very important as means to expanding the freedoms enjoyed by the members of the society. Summary pathologies of power uses harrowing stories of life and death in extreme situations to interrogate our understanding of human rights paul farmer a physician and anthropologist with twenty years of experience working in haiti peru and russia argues that promoting the social and economic rights of the worlds poor is the most important human rights struggle of our times