The Self in Health and Illness. Patients, Professionals and narrative Identity
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Author(s): F. Rapport and P. Wainwright (Eds)
Publisher: Radcliffe Medical Press
ISBN: 1846191122
Format: softback
134pp
Price: £24.95, $48.00
Review Date: 27 October 2006
Review: It is difficult to locate the individual experience of life, illness and suffering in the taxonomic account of ‘self’ conceived by the analytical philosophers. Similarly both the ‘self’ of healthcare practitioners and the notion of ‘self’ that is at stake in dealing with patients, as understood within the world of the healthcare practitioner, appear to demand a fuller account than they have in the past. This book is the result of an invitation for papers from academics, within and without the field of humanities, healthcare practitioners from any discipline and from anyone with experience in the world of healthcare. The common concern is an interest in ‘constructions’ of narrative selves. The resultant ten chapters provide examples from diverse clinical settings. Patients’ views of their identity changes with illness, as do health professionals’ views of them. This book looks at how and why this happens, and discusses how an increased awareness of this could lead to better care of the patient.