Contemporary medicine prides itself on patient-centered care, but it is startlingly inattentive—even actively indifferent—to patients’ emotional needs. For patients with chronic illness, with its upheaval of life, this indifference poses a particular challenge. In chronic illness, the patient does not have a problem that can be solved quickly but a

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First of all, patients are already seeking information online about their issues. This can be some combination of the fact that advice from the internet is free, they’re embarrassed about their issues, and they feel the medical system is not hearing what they have to say. However, these communities are almost entirely disconnected from the current ... See more

A young girl, obsessed with plant lore, prone to hallucinations, spends weeks singing to herself, inventing and speaking her own private languages. Is she autistic? Or is she Saint (f*ck*ng) Hildegard of Bingen?

We could diagnose these people. We could make them like us, bound by a system of classification that aims to reduce the amount of wonder i... See more