At the Will of the Body

by Arthur W. Frank

Book Overview

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 from person to patient, the pain, the wonder, and the ceremony of recovery.

To illuminate what illness...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618219293
• ISBN13: 9780618219292
• Release Date: July 2002
• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

One of my favorite books on the patient journey

I recommend this book to my patients all the time. My own copy is almost completely highlighted. Dr. Frank gives such insight into his own patient experience and from a medical sociologist's perspective! Abby Caplin, MD, MA, San Francisco, CA

Best Book On Illness

For anyone who is ill or anyone who is accompanying someone else on this journey, this book is invaluable. Richly illuminating and enlightening about what it means to be facing a life threatening illness. It is enormously helpful and reassuring to read of someone facing this head on without the current and dismissive "just have a positive attitude". it is engrossing and a life changing book. I cannot recommend highly enough.

Education and Hope

I have helped train family practice physicians and I have used the play "W;T" to try and sensitize young physicians to the viewpoint of the patient. I was asked to read this book for a graduate course in spirituality and healing called: Suffering and Hope. I found it even better than "W;T" for training purposes. I think it should be required reading for all medical students and residents. Physicians are much more than just technicians trained to "fix" bodies. The viewpoint of the author was most helpful in suggesting ways to approach a very difficult situation. I have ordered copies for friends who are suffering from cancer that it may help them on their journey!

Awesome

This was one of the best books I have read in the course of my dissertation work. I'd say it is a must read for anyone in the health care profession, as well as patients battling chronic symptoms. The book is a reminder that we need to remember the PERSON who is the patient.

He gave me the courage to risk hangin in there for others..

Arthur Frank doesn't deny any aspect of his experience, and through his demonstration of bare-bones honesty and self acceptance, I connected with myself, which is where the answers, if there are any, are to be found. I saw my own fear of cancer patients played out on these pages, and I recalled with anguish the number of times I disappeared from the lives of people I cared about because I was so afraid of their disease, their pain and the possibility that they'd die. ...and I also saw the ways in which I've protected myself from my own fear of cancer by wondering what it was in their psyches that caused them to be stricken by this terrible disease. ... and I saw how frightened I've been to be present in my own body. His honesty gave me the courage to change, and I'm incredibly grateful. Patti Harada, Tucson, AZ.