Illness as Subjective Experience

Abstract

This is a patient's autobiographical account of her illness while hospitalized at the place of her employment. She discusses her emotional reactions to her illness experience–her anxiety and depression over seizure activity and concomitant debilitation, her frustration over her failure to communicate with the staff, her request for psychiatric consultation, and her eventual rehabilitation. She raises such issues as the reluctance of physicians to recommend psychiatric consultation, the obstacles to effective communication and patient care posed by medical territorialism, and the complications that arise when a health worker must assume the role of patient, cared for by fellow staff members.