Patienthood and Communication

A Personal Narrative of Eye Disease and Vision Loss

Peter M Kellett author Gary L Kreps editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Peter Lang Publishing Inc

Published:18th Oct '17

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

This hardback is available in another edition too:

Patienthood and Communication cover

Patienthood and Communication is an engagingly personal narrative detailing the author’s experience living with, and adapting to, a degenerative and incurable eye disease (MacTel). Beyond the personal, this poignant story more broadly illustrates the ways in which communication enables individuals to adjust to serious health threats.

Author and subject Peter Kellett highlights his important interactions with health care providers, family members, friends, colleagues, students, and others that provide shape to his journey. Kellett displays a compelling capacity for self-reflection in his descriptions of the life changes his vision loss imposes upon him, among them changes to his identity, in relationships and life plans. Adaptation and flexibility reveal themselves as central tenets of his learning to become a self-empowered patient. Perhaps the most crucial element to his adjustment is, however, positive communication, which is depicted throughout the book as the driving force in Kellett’s journey into patienthood.

"This book is powerful, poignant, and illustrative of the ways communication enables individuals to adjust to serious and potentially debilitating health threats. I really like the insights provided in the book about interactions with health care providers, family members, colleagues, students, and others across the trajectory of the author's health journey. The coverage in the chapters of self-disclosure and social support are especially meaningful. I also like the profound self-reflectiveness in the book, describing changes in the author's self-image and life plans, illustrating the importance of adaptation and flexibility. Finally, I really like the positive communication theme that runs through the book as a critical communication orientation for promoting control over our lives through successful patient-hood!" —Gary Kreps, Ph.D., FAAHB University Distinguished Professor, Department of Communication Director, Center for Health and Risk Communication George Mason University

ISBN: 9781433138317

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 530g

296 pages

New edition