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My Imaginary Illness , livre ebook

Cornell University Press - Chloe Atkins

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How Patients ThinkAt age twenty-one, Chloe Atkins began suffering from a mysterious illness, the symptoms of which rapidly worsened. Paralyzed for months at a time, she frequently required intubation and life support. She eventually became quadriplegic, dependent both on a wheelchair and on health professionals who refused to believe there was anything physically wrong with her. When test after test returned inconclusive results, Atkins's doctors pronounced her symptoms psychosomatic. Atkins was told not only that she was going to die but also that this was her own fault; they concluded she was so emotionally deranged that she was willing her own death.My Imaginary Illness is the compelling story of Atkins's decades-long battle with a disease deemed imaginary, her frustration with a succession of doctors and diagnoses, her immersion in the world of psychotherapy, and her excruciating physical and emotional journey back to wellness. As both a political theorist and patient, Atkins provides a narrative critique of contemporary medicine and its problematic handling of uncertainty and of symptoms that are not easily diagnosed or known. She convincingly illustrates that medicine's belief in evidence-based practice does not mean that individual doctors are capable of objectivity, nor that the presence of biomedical ethics invokes ethical practices in hospitals and clinics.A foreword by Bonnie Blair O'Connor, who teaches medical students how to listen to patients, and a clinical commentary by Dr. Brian David Hodges, a professor of psychiatry, enrich the book's narrative with practical guidance for medical practitioners and patients alike.

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Medical diagnosis

Memoir

Informations

Publié par	Cornell University Press
Date de parution	15 mai 2011
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780801459948
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,7500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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My Imaginary Illness

     How Patients Think

   The Culture and Politics of Health Care Work edited bySuzanne Gordon and Sioban Nelson

A list of titles in this series is available at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

MY A Journey into Uncertainty and IMAGINARY Prejudice in Medical DiagnosisILLNESS

CHLOË G. K. ATKINS

With a Clinical Commentary byBrian David Hodges, MD

Foreword byBonnie Blair O’Connor

ILR PressAn imprint of Cornell University Press Ithaca and London

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2010 by Cornell University Press

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Atkins, Chlo G. K. (Chlo Gwyneth Katharine), 1965– My imaginary illness : a journey into uncertainty and prejudice in medical diagnosis / Chlo G. K. Atkins; with a clinical commentary by Brian David Hodges; foreword by Bonnie Blair O’Connor. p. cm. — (The culture and politics of health care work. How patients think) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 9780801448874 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Myasthenia gravis—Diagnosis. 2. Somatization disorder—Diagnosis. 3. Diagnosis—Social aspects. I. Hodges, Brian David, 1964– II. Title. III. Series: Culture and politics of health care work. How patients think. RC935.M8A85 2010 616.7'442—dc22 2010013374

Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetablebased, lowVOC inks and acidfree papers that are recycled, totally chlorinefree, or partly composed of nonwood ﬁbers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

Cloth printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

I would not have survived this journey without the love and support of two extraordinary women: A.N.F. and A.L.M. They believed me when most thought me to be worthless, unstable, and incurable. My life and this book would not have been possible without them. My four children have also played an incalculable role in my survival and have endowed my life with a joy that I had never imagined possible—they too deserve credit for this tome’s existence.

I came to explore the wreck.

The words are purposes.

The words are maps.

I came to see the damage that was done

and the treasures that prevail.

—AR,“Diving into the Wreck”

Contents

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 91011121314

Editor’s Note Foreword by Bonnie Blair O’ConnorAcknowledgmentsIntroduction

Beginnings The Original Crisis Facing Uncertainty Ontological Apprehensions Diagnosis: Conversion Reaction Credo More Paralysis and More Psychological Remedies A Pyrrhic Victory Becoming a Pariah Fire! Fire! Love in the Midst of Ruin Grasping at a Diagnosis, Hoping for a Cure The Crisis Deepens Contemplating Hemlock

ix xi xvii xxi

1 6 12 15 19 23 31 40 50 59 79 92 101 119

viii

151617

Contents

Icarus A Crisis, American Style Gravy

Clinical Commentary by Brian David Hodges, MD BibliographyAbout the AuthorsIndex

123 132 140

153 193 203 205

Editor’s Note

This book is the second volume in our collection, How Patients Think. The inspiration for this collection was Jerome Groopman’s bookHow Doctors Think, an interesting exploration of the way doctors have been socialized to think about patient care and the mistakes they can make because of that socialization. As Brian David Hodges points out in his clinical commentary at the end of this volume, Groopman—albeit with empathy and good will—seems to ask patients to adapt to, not merely understand, this medical thinking process. In 2008, we, as editors of the Culture and Politics of Health Care Work series, launched How Patients Think to give patients a voice and to cre ate a much needed dialogue among doctors, nurses, other clinicians, and patients. Our goal is to use each book as a forum in which patients and clinicians can bridge some of the gaps that often separate them. Each book in the collection presents the narrative of a patient. In this narrative we learn how patients think about disease and illness and their encoun ters with the health care system. We invite a health care expert—in this case the medical educator and ethnographer Bonnie Blair O’Connor—to begin framing the narrative in a foreword. The book is then concluded by a clinical commentary by a physician, nurse, or other clinician who reﬂects on some of the meanings and lessons of how patients think about a particular illness or set of encounters with the health care system.

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My Imaginary Illness , livre ebook

Medical diagnosis

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My Imaginary Illness , livre ebook

Medical diagnosis

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