The Renewal of Generosity: Illness, Medicine, and How to Live

doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7461.355-a

BMJ 2004;329:355 (7 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7461.355-a

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The Renewal of Generosity: Illness, Medicine, and How to Live

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Arthur Frank, professor of sociology at the University of Calgary,Canada, makes two surprising and perhaps disturbing statements.He confesses to not being "unqualifiedly grateful" to his physiciansfor having treated him for cancer. Equally important is hisperception that his doctors did not care for him with unqualifiedgenerosity at all times. Why has medicine come to this stateof affairs? And what can be done about it?

Arthur W Frank

The University of ChicagoPress, £19.50/$27.50, pp 166 ISBN 0 226 26015 1 http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/16179.ctl

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Frank adopts a narrative based approach to illustrate his beliefs.Narrative based medicine, a relatively new field, seeks to incorporatea crucial factor often lacking in modern medicine—thehuman factor. Frank draws on the works of a diverse populationof generous people to explain his views. They include the respectedphysician writers Abraham Verghese and David Hilfiker. Frank'sstories involve patients (including . . . [Full text of this article]

Sanjay A Pai, consultant pathologist

Manipal Hospital, Bangalore, India s_pai@vsnl.com