Original, moving, and drawing from a range of fields, an essential exploration of what it means to be ill.
 
A serious illness often changes the way others see us. Few, if any, relationships remain the same. The sick become more dependent on partners and family members, while more distant contacts become strained. The carers of the ill are also often isolated. This book focuses on our sense of self when ill and how infirmity plays out in our relationships with others. Neil Vickers and Derek Bolton offer an original perspective, drawing on neuroscience, psychology, and psychoanalysis as well as memoirs of the ill or their carers to reveal how a sense of connectedness and group belonging can not only improve care but also make societies more resilient to illness. This is an essential book on the experience of major illness.

Neil Vickers is professor of English literature and the health humanities at King’s College London and has had a career in epidemiology. He has published widely on literature and medical subjects and is the author of Coleridge and the Doctors. Derek Bolton is emeritus professor of philosophy and psychopathology at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King’s College London. Among his many books, he is the author of What Is Mental Disorder? and coauthor of The Biopsychosocial Model of Health and Disease.

Introduction
1: Emergent Illness
2: Care
3: The Pariah Syndrome
4: Biopsychosocial Beings
Conclusion
References
Bibliography
Index