title: You can't use plywood: The perilous success of spirituality and medicine.
abstract: The Canadian sociologist Arthur Frank has thought deeply about both health and illness, especially life-threatening illness, and, by extension, the lack of distinction that exists between a spiritualized medicine or a medicalized spirituality. Professor Frank is known internationally for his pioneering work on illness narratives and has made significant contributions to the emergent field of Narrative Medicine. He has integrated the gleanings of personal experience and professional research into a cohesive whole and made such available in 3 richly nuanced and significant works of narrative medicine: At the Will of the Body, The Wounded Storyteller, and The Renewal of Generosity. With a voice that is soulful and wry, humble and fierce, Franks work chronicles and reflects on a full spectrum of human-making experiences as they relate to terminal illness, hope, intimacy, confusion, listening, and responding. Whether our readers are caregivers, clinicians, or individuals preparing for the transition called Death, this is one author who asks tough questions and makes room for delicate, paradoxical, out-of-the-box responses. In doing so, he brings that which is intimately personal into a larger discourse that is social, political, and cultural. At the same time, he protects the inviolate intimacy granted to each individual on the threshold. Bravo!
authors.affiliation: University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. frank@ucalgary.ca
authors.forename: Arthur W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Frank
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001293:Attitude to Death; D001294:Attitude to Health; D006801:Humans; D012649:Self Concept; D012944:Social Support; D029181:Spirituality; D014925:Wit and Humor as Topic