The Lonely Patient: How We Experience Illness [Hardcover]

Michael Stein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 30, 2007

When someone is diagnosed with a serious illness, he or she is taking the first step on a challenging and confusing journey. For many, it is as if they are traveling alone to someplace entirely new, with only faded directions back to their old lives. Often, even their loved ones can only guess at what they must be experiencing. Michael Stein, M.D., uses the stories of his own patients to consider the personal narrative of sickness. Beautifully written and keenly insightful, The Lonely Patient is a valuable book for patients and their caregivers as well as a probing inquiry into this universal experience.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Beautifully written, this is a look into the hearts and minds of people suffering serious illness: into the terrors that they often don't express directly. Stein centers his investigation on his brother-in-law Richard, diagnosed with a rare sinus cancer at the age of 50. According to Stein, a professor at the Brown University School of Medicine and a novelist (The Lynching Tree), such patients pass through four emotional stages—betrayal, terror, loneliness and loss—which he illustrates with riveting case studies. One patient had a mysterious bump on his head; because of his fear of anesthesia, he decided to forgo a necessary operation. Stein's most expressive prose evokes the isolated world of the patient, who is locked into a limited existence, confined in a hospital room or at home, exemplified at its most extreme by a quadriplegic who feels completely shut in to "a strange indoor island world." Stein says he now understands the importance of taking the hand of a fearful patient, who need not display courage in front of physicians. This is a moving and eloquent testimony from a caring practitioner. (Feb.)
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From Booklist

Despite years of medical training and practice, only when his beloved brother-in-law, Richard, was diagnosed with a rare cancer did internist Stein contemplate the psychological effects of illness. Sadly, he felt his medical training had inadequately prepared him to properly counsel the terminally ill man. During the next eight years, as Richard fought a losing battle, Stein witnessed his responses to his new life circumstances. Throughout Richard's illness and for the six years thereafter, Stein took particular note of how his patients dealt with chronic and terminal illnesses and how caretakers and loved ones were affected. He likens life with chronic or terminal illness to living in a strange, new place in which one experiences in turn many emotions, the most common being betrayal, terror, loss, and loneliness. He candidly shares Richard's story and those of a handful of others as he presents first-rate analysis of the emotional toll illness takes on all affected by it. A valuable resource, complete with tips on navigating the shadowy terrain of chronic illness. Donna Chavez
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1 edition (January 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060847956
• ISBN-13: 978-0060847951
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,277,885 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Philosophical, not scientific, medical book, April 18, 2007

By 

Nina (Nashville) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lonely Patient: How We Experience Illness (Hardcover)

A Crohn's patient since 1973 and a chronic pain patient since 2004, I was drawn to this title. I also buy the nonfiction books for a medium-sized library. This book would be of enormous value to all patients and physicians - should be required reading in medical school, certainly by pain specialists.

For chronic pain/illness sufferers, buy your own copy so that you can underline sentences or paragraphs that you would like your family/caregivers/friends to read.

It was of untold value to me to know that my loneliness (even though I have a family) was intimately understood by one person out there.

Thank you, Dr. Stein.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Necessary Knowledge, Anne Webster, RN, April 6, 2007

By 

Anne Webster, "author of "A History of Nu... (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lonely Patient: How We Experience Illness (Hardcover)

Dr. Stein's book fills a gap in caregivers knowledge base. His descriptions of the emotional impact of serious illness have never been addressed so clearly. As an RN with a 25 year career and as a patient whose life has been redirected by chronic illness, I fully appreciate Stein's careful mapping of illness's effects on the patient.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Naming the Fear, April 5, 2007

By 

D. B. Dawson (Memphis, TN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Lonely Patient: How We Experience Illness (Hardcover)

I wonder if the negative reviews that preceded this one came from people who read the same book that I did. As one who is well-acquainted with chronic illness (Crohn's disease for 34 years, pulmonary fibrosis and Sjogren's syndrome for 20 years, fractured skull, chronic spinal problems) I think that Michael Stein has done an admirable job of naming the fear and isolation that are emotional hallmarks of the experience of serious illness. His writing is excellent, and his perceptions are empathic and insightful. I can, without reservation, recommend The Lonely Patient to anyone who is newly diagnosed or to those who want to understand the chilling, progressively dehumanizing effects of coping with a chronic, life-threatening illness.