Being Ill - by Neil Vickers & Derek Bolton (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"Being Ill is an in-depth discussion of how individualistic societies, particularly those in the West, ignore illness. . . . This title will be of particular interest to those in disability studies, though the content is also relevant for those in sociological and medical disciplines."-- "Choice"

"A must-read--a powerful, interdisciplinary masterpiece. . . . Explore[s] what it truly means to fall ill--not only physically, but emotionally, socially, and existentially. . . . Being Ill is a call: it challenges healthcare professionals, and aid providers to go beyond technical solutions. Gratitude to Vickers and Bolton who through this book teach us to be better carers."-- "Chronicle of Healthcare and Narrative Medicine"

"An extremely rich book--rich in learning and methodology, rich in examples, rich in important insight. . . . It brings inspiration in the conceptual analysis that it offers of a fundamental concept like care. . . . Being Ill is not just a rich book, it's an important one as well, one that deserves to receive an audience that goes far beyond the scholarly domain of health and medical humanities."-- "The Polyphony"

"Being Ill is a carefully argued and scholarly work that demands close attention and careful reading. . . . Illuminating and pioneering."-- "The Lancet"

"How well do we look after people who are seriously sick? Astonishingly, research is scant--which makes Vickers and Bolton's ambitious new book, Being Ill, very welcome. . . . Being Ill stands out not only for its original perspective but for the non-judgemental tone of its authors."-- "New Scientist"

"The reaction to illness, our own and that of others to whom we are close, reveals much of what it means to be human and live in society. Such is the theme of this humane and scholarly study which has much to say about the fundamentals of caring for others, both when they are ill, and when they are well."--Michael Marmot, director of the UCL Institute of Health Equity

"A pioneering volume. For our ageing population, varieties of illness have become headline news, an ever-present talking-point for which we badly need fresh thinking. Vickers and Bolton demonstrate how the reach of medical humanities can be extended by empathy and health science. This study of the 'collective psychobiological' dimensions of illness is radical in its implications. Potentially, it offers a new way forward for our understanding of the ways the human animal inter-relates in sickness and in health."--Robert McCrum, author of "Every Third Thought: On Life, Death and the Endgame"

"Vickers and Bolton elucidate the contradiction between the human need for caring relationships and people's tendency to pull away from those who are ill and disabled. They assemble the broadest range of studies--from infant research to microsociology to neurology and epigenetics--to explain why relationships between the healthy and the ill are often fraught. Readers who seek a scientific basis for medical humanities will find much of value here."--Arthur W. Frank, PhD, author of "At the Will of the Body" and "The Wounded Storyteller"

About the Author

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.