For students and professionals in the humanities and medical sciences, Myers (humanities and English, Pennsylvania State U.) and Schweitzer (English literature, Bucknell U.) bring together 10
essays that address the suffering of patients and how individuals and society understand and try to ameliorate it. Four essays are personal reflections on illness that incorporate analyses of
literary texts and original poetry and prose, while the other six essays examine patient suffering through history, politics, and culture and literary texts from George Eliot to Irish poetry.
These include discussion of patient narratives, Native American beliefs and practices, Irish women's bodies, the medicalization of sexuality in Sweden at the turn of the twentieth century, and
the ethics of lying about illness. Contributors are scholars working in medicine, social sciences, and the humanities, from the US and Europe, who met for ��he Patient: An International
Symposium��at Bucknell U. in October 2006. Distributed by Associated University Presses. Annotation 穢2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
