In the Kingdom of the Sick
A Social History of Chronic Illness in America
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
Thirty years ago, Susan Sontag wrote, "Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship in the kingdom of the well and the kingdom of the sick ... Sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place." Now more than 133 million Americans live with chronic illness, accounting for nearly three-quarters of all health care dollars, and untold pain and disability.
There has been an alarming rise in illnesses that defy diagnosis through clinical tests or have no known cure. Millions of people, especially women, with illnesses such as irritable bowel syndrome, chronic pain, and chronic fatigue syndrome face skepticism from physicians and the public alike. And people with diseases as varied as cardiovascular disease, HIV, certain cancers, and type 2 diabetes have been accused of causing their preventable illnesses through their lifestyle choices.
We must balance our faith in medical technology with awareness of the limits of science, and confront our throwback beliefs that people who are sick have weaker character than those who are well. Through research and patient narratives, health writer Laurie Edwards explores patient rights, the role of social media in medical advocacy, the origins of our attitudes about chronic illness, and much more. What The Noonday Demon did for people suffering from depression, In the Kingdom of the Sick does for those who are chronically ill.
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With chronic ailments the new norm, people are fighting for their right to be ill, argues this wan exploration of evolving attitudes toward sickness. Edwards (Life Disrupted) surveys the battle of patients with intractable diseases against disparagement and misunderstanding, including AIDS patients deemed morally unworthy, diabetics blamed for unhealthy lifestyles, and breast cancer survivors who are lionized but also expected to remain cheerful and feisty. But she focuses on people who suffer from poorly defined maladies chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic Lyme disease, fibromyalgia, and other kinds of persistent pain that are often ascribed to stress, malingering, or feminine hysteria instead of biological causes. Edwards, who has celiac disease and lung disorders, mostly sides with patients against skeptics; she regales readers with her own and others' stories of dismissive doctors and unsympathetic jibes, and situates their struggle for credibility within the patients' rights movement and the Internet's burgeoning ethos of do-it-yourself medical research and advocacy. She is more interested in activism against prejudice, sexism, and an arrogant medical establishment than in the lived experience of illness, and frequently glosses over scientific issues with anecdotes instead of rigorously analyzing them. One often feels that Edwards misses the heart of the medical problems she addresses.
