Why read At the Will of the Body?

Book cover of At the Will of the Body: Reflections on Illness

Book description

A medical sociologist who has been seriously ill twice (heart attack and cancer) explores his experiences and examines what they taught him about how to live. An important resource for caregivers and patients.

In this deeply affecting memoir, Arthur W. Frank explores the events of illness from within: the transformation…

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Why read it?

1 author picked At the Will of the Body as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Ed Cohen

Author

This classic text by medical sociologist Arthur Frank was written in the wake of two life-threatening events: a heart attack at age 39 and a cancer diagnosis a year later.

Frank draws on both his scholarly and personal experiences to guide others who find themselves in similar circumstances. He helps us understand that when we place ourselves in medicine’s hands, we also subject ourselves to their ways of knowing. Their stories bleed into our stories, but they are never the same as our stories because what medicine knows as disease is not the same as what we experience as illness.

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From Ed's list on The best books on learning to heal.