{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,24]],"date-time":"2025-09-24T19:10:16Z","timestamp":1758741016921,"version":"3.44.0"},"reference-count":42,"publisher":"BMJ","issue":"4","content-domain":{"domain":["bmj.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Med Humanities"],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2019,6,12]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2019,12]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>In the first three decades after AIDS started infecting people in the USA and Canada, before, during and after the emergence of anti-retroviral therapies, numerous \u201calternative and holistic treatments\u201d for AIDS were debated, tested, circulated, written about and taught. This paper, taking a narrow focus, examines documents that reveal how some people with AIDS developed a logic of care predicated on intimate interactions with microscopic lifeforms\u2014the AIDS virus and the bacteria involved in fermentation, in particular. Focusing on the writings of Jon Greenberg and Sandor Katz, two former members of ACT UP\/NY, I show that the men did not just dissent from management by biomedical authority but found new authority about how to care for themselves as people with AIDS from their interactions with non-human microscopic life. The practices and writings of both men demonstrate that Foucault\u2019s theory of counter-conduct exists in the history of AIDS as an interspecies process in which microscopic existents lead humans. From Katz and Greenberg, I argue there is an interspecies dimension to counter-conduct that exists as a frame for understanding people who find in non-human life a guide towards unconventional forms of care, revised forms of human behaviour and philosophies for persisting with illness.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1136\/medhum-2019-011670","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,8,13]],"date-time":"2019-08-13T17:15:15Z","timestamp":1565716515000},"page":"435-442","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/crossmarkpolicy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Ferments and the AIDS virus: interspecies counter-conduct in the history of AIDS"],"prefix":"10.1136","volume":"45","author":[{"given":"Justin Abraham","family":"Linds","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"239","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,8,13]]},"reference":[{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.1","unstructured":"Alternative and Holistic Treatment Subcommittee . Grace Powers Monaco, Emprise, and the Database on \u2018Unproven Remedies for AIDS\u2019: ACT UP\/NY, 1988. R. 25 b.34 f. 3. Act UP New York records."},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.2","unstructured":"Bilger Burkhard . Nature\u2019s Spoils: The New Yorker, 2014."},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1215\/01642472-2009-005"},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1215\/01642472-1210247"},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1215\/01642472-3727984"},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.6","unstructured":"Blume Anna . Peptide T: General Information: ACT UP\/NY. n.d. B. 33 f. 17. Act UP New York records."},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.7","unstructured":"Brier Jennifer , and Easton Emily . Surviving and Thriving: AIDS, Politics, and Culture: NIH: U.S.National Library of Medicine, 2013. https:\/\/www.nlm.nih.gov\/exhibition\/survivingandthriving\/"},{"issue":"5","key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"691","DOI":"10.1177\/0306312715599851","article-title":"Making Time for Soil: Technoscientific Futurity and the Pace of Care","volume":"45","author":"de la Bellacasa","year":"2015","journal-title":"Social Studies of Science"},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Dean Tim . Unlimited Intimacy: Reflections on the Subculture of Barebacking. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009. http:\/\/public.eblib.com\/choice\/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=448538","DOI":"10.7208\/chicago\/9780226139401.001.0001"},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1086\/448181"},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.11","unstructured":"Foucault Michel . Security, Territory, Population. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007."},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.12","unstructured":"Greenberg Jon . Needle Treatment Pays Off. ACT UP\/NY. n.d. R. 26 b. 34 f. 11. Act UP New York records."},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.13","unstructured":"Greenberg Jon . Treatment Alternatives, 1991. R. 25 b.33 f. 1-3. Act UP New York records."},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.14","unstructured":"Greenberg Jon , and Blume Anna . \u201cTreatment Alternatives: Teach-In.\u201d Treatment Alternatives, 1991. R.24 b.33 f.1-3. Act UP New York records.."},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.15","unstructured":"Greenberg Jon , and Katz Sandor . Announcement: Treatment Alternatives Project, 1992. R. 25 b.33 f. 1-3. Act UP New York records."},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.16","unstructured":"Greenberg Jon . \u201cChoosing Therapies for Individual Treatment Strategies. Presented at the VIII International Conference on AIDS, Amsterdam.\u201d, 1992a. http:\/\/www.actupny.org\/treatment\/greenbergChoose.html."},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.17","unstructured":"Greenberg Jon . Report from West Coast, 1992b. R. 25 b.33 f. 1-3. Act UP New York records."},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.18","unstructured":"Greenberg Jon . \u201cPolitical Funerals.\u201d: ACT UP NY, 1993. http:\/\/www.actupny.org\/diva\/polfunsyn.html#anchor3067986"},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hadrich Dirk . \u201cMicrobiome Research Is Becoming the Key to Better Understanding Health and Nutrition.\u201d Frontiers in Genetics 9 (2018). https:\/\/doi.org\/ doi:10.3389\/fgene.2018.00212","DOI":"10.3389\/fgene.2018.00212"},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.20","unstructured":"Heldke Lisa . \u201cFermentation Taught Me.\u201d In The Art of Fermentation: An in-Depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes from around the World, 109. White River Junction, Vt.: Chelsea Green Pub, 2012."},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hennen Peter . Faeries, Bears, and Leathermen Men in Community Queering the Masculine. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.","DOI":"10.7208\/chicago\/9780226327297.001.0001"},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.22","unstructured":"Herrada Julie , and Retzloff Tim . \u201cShamefully Gay: Documents from the Labadie Collection.\u201d In Gay Shame, edited by Halperin DavidM , and Traub Valerie . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009."},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.23","unstructured":"Hunt Andrew . Dictionary of Chemistry. London, UK: Routledge, 1999. http:\/\/ebookcentral.proquest.com\/lib\/nyulibrary-ebooks\/detail.action?docID=1666754"},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.24","unstructured":"Husaini Ann , and Lobsenz Emily , The New York Times . \u201cSandorkraut: A Pickle Maker.\u201d, 2017. https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/07\/28\/opinion\/sandorkraut-a-pickle-maker.html."},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.25","unstructured":"Katz Sandor Ellix . Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods. White River Junction, Vt.: Chelsea Green Pub, 2003."},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.26","unstructured":"Katz Sandor Ellix . The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America\u2019s Underground Food Movements. White River Junction, Vt.: Chelsea Green Pub, 2006."},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.27","unstructured":"Katz Sandor Ellix . The Art of Fermentation: An in-Depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes from around the World. White River Junction, Vt.: Chelsea Green Pub, 2012."},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.28","first-page":"37","article-title":"Becoming Microbial","volume":"9","author":"Linds","year":"2016","journal-title":"Scapegoat Journal"},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.29","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1215\/01642472-1210237"},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.30","unstructured":"Montanez Joseph . The Task of Undertaking Medical Management of Hispanic Patients: ACT UP\/NY, 2018. n.d. R. 25 b.33 f. 8 Act UP New York records"},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Murphy Michelle . Seizing the Means of Reproduction: Entanglements of Feminism, Health, and Technoscience. Durham, NC: Chesham: Duke University Press; Combined Academic, 2013.","DOI":"10.2307\/j.ctv125jmpm"},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.32","unstructured":"NIAIS . Major Questionable (Dubious) Remedies to Prevent or Treat AIDS, 1988. R. 25 b.34 f. 3. Act UP New York records."},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.33","unstructured":"NIH: U.S. National Library of Medicine . \u201cSurviving & Thriving: AIDS, Politics, and Culture.\u201d, 2013. https:\/\/www.nlm.nih.gov\/exhibition\/survivingandthriving\/index.html."},{"issue":"5","key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"836","DOI":"10.1053\/j.gastro.2016.07.044","article-title":"The Effect of Microbiota and the Immune System on the Development and Organization of the Enteric Nervous System","volume":"151","author":"Obata","year":"2016","journal-title":"Gastroenterology"},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.35","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0306312713505003"},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.36","unstructured":"Pollan Michael . \u201cForeward.\u201d The Art of Fermentation: An in-Depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes from around the World, 14\u201317. White River Junction, Vt.: Chelsea Green Pub, 2012."},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Povinelli Elizabeth A . Geontologies: A Requiem to Late Liberalism, 2016.","DOI":"10.1515\/9780822373810"},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.38","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/2166840"},{"issue":"2","key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"143","DOI":"10.2307\/41949746","article-title":"Tense Animals: On Other Species of Pastoral Power","volume":"11","author":"Shukin","year":"2012","journal-title":"CR: The New Centennial Review"},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.40","unstructured":"The Alternative & Holistic Treatment Subcommittee, and The Insurance and Access Committee . Stop the Insurance Industry\u2019s Blacklist of Unapproved AIDS Treatments. n.d. R. 25 b.34 f. 2. Act UP New York records."},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.41","unstructured":"The Alternative & Holistic Treatments Committee, and The Insurance and Health Care Access Committee . Re: Participation in a National Action at the 1991 Annual Convention of the American Medical Association, 1991. n.d. R. 25 b.33 f. 1-3. Act UP New York records."},{"key":"2025092411315604000_45.4.435.42","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/09502388700490221"}],"container-title":["Medical Humanities"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/syndication.highwire.org\/content\/doi\/10.1136\/medhum-2019-011670","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,24]],"date-time":"2025-09-24T18:32:06Z","timestamp":1758738726000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/mh.bmj.com\/lookup\/doi\/10.1136\/medhum-2019-011670"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2019,8,13]]},"references-count":42,"journal-issue":{"issue":"4","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,23]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2019,12]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1136\/medhum-2019-011670"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/medhum-2019-011670","relation":{},"ISSN":["1468-215X","1473-4265"],"issn-type":[{"type":"print","value":"1468-215X"},{"type":"electronic","value":"1473-4265"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2019,8,13]]}}}