This innovative collection offers a fresh look at health, healing, and illness--providing a "bridge" between human experience and social policies and practices. The book brings people with illness into the foreground; it goes beyond patient's roles and into their lives--emphasizing the gap between the acute care model and the needs of the chronically ill. The readings link personal accounts with structural problems, inviting students to identify with these authors and to see the social issues within their stories. Selections are accessible and edited for succinctness. Section and chapter introductions bring the articles into focus and guide student reading. Discussion questions stimulate critical thinking, and suggested readings direct students to pivotal references.

Throughout the book, coverage demonstrates how gender, race, class, and age affect patients and players within the health-care system. Stories help students reexamine their assumptions about medical care "shoulds" and "oughts" and to think critically about future priorities and trends. Other articles cover:

* Illness and identity
* Care and control
* Becoming a person with HIV disease
* The damaged self
* Rationing medical care
* Marketing rehabilitation goods and services
* The problematic nature of defining health
* Socioeconomic differences in health service