The Tapestry of Health, Illness and Disease

Book excerpt: Human suffering and illness as well as health and healing are topics of ongoing actuality. In a world of growing complexity and interrelatedness a broader perspective on these topics is needed. The global conference project on “Making Sense of: Health, Illness and Disease” is a forum for scholars from various countries who are interested in deepening the interdisciplinary discourse on the subject. This book is the outcome of the 5th conference held at Mansfield College, Oxford, in July 2006. It combines essays that transgress traditional disciplinary boundaries in the field of health care delivery and medicine. It thus will be of interest to students in the medical humanities, researchers as well as health care providers who wish to gain insight into the various perspectives through which health, illness and disease can be understood.