At the will of the body : reflections on illness

164 Pages·1991·17.43 MB·English

by  Arthur W. Frank

"a dramatic contribution to our LIVES."-M. SCOTT PECK
"ARTHUR W. FRANK PROVIDES AN ELOQUENT AND LI.UMI NATI NO
EXPLANATION OF WHAT IT IS LIKE-WHAT ITMEANI S-TO BE SICK."
-CHARLES SILBERMAN, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
E.
REFLECTIONS
ON ILLNESS
Tij
"A profound meditation that is at
once beautifully written and accessible
to a wide audience, yet also very wise
and gready challenging. A remarkable
achievement."
—
Arthur Kleinman, M.D.,
author of The Illness Narratives
Arthur Frank has survived two serious
illnesses: a heart attack at age thirty-
nine and cancer, diagnosed a year
later. In this probing and life-affirm-
ing book, he tells us how illness affects
us and what it can teach us about life.
Critical illness took Frank to a place
he describes as "the threshold of
life,
from which you can see where your
life could end." But from that vantage
point he also found the opportunity
to examine his life with absolute clari-
ty and to choose its direcdon. "Illness
is something to recover from if you
can," he writes, "but recovery worth
is
only as much as what you learn about
the life you are recovering."
''At the Will of the Body is a descripdon
of feelings, reactions, [and] survival
strategies, experienced when
cata-
strophic sickness cast the author in
the role of padent."
—
The AmericanJournal of
Hospice 6f Palliative Care
AT THE
WILL
OF THE BODY

Arthur W. Frank
AT THE
WILL
OF THE BODY
Reflections on Illness
4i
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
Boston/New York
Copyright © 1991 by Arthur W. Frank and
Catherine E. Foote
All rights reserved
For information about permission to reproduce selections from
this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Company,
215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Frank, Arthur W.
At the will of the body reflections on illness /
Arthur W. Frank.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-395-56188-—4 ISBN 0-395-62430-4 (—pbk.) —
I. Frank, Arth—ur W. Health. 2. Ca—ncer Patie—nts
United Sta—tes Biography.— 3. Heart Infarctio—n
Patients United States Biography. 4. Sick
Psychology. I. Title.
RC265.6.F73A3 1991
—
6i6'.ooi'9 dc20 90-4459
[b] cip
Printed in the United States of America
AGM 10 9 8 7
The quotation from The Illness Narratives^ by Arthur Kleinman,
M.D., copyright © 1988 by Basic Books, Inc., is reprinted by
permission ofBasic Books, Inc., Publishers, New York. The quo-
tation from Diary ofa Zen Nun, by Nan Shin, © 1986, is re-
printed by permission of E. P. Dutton, Inc. The quotation from
"Author's Notes to The Marriage ofBette and Boo" by Chris-
topherDurang,published byDramatists PlayService, isreprinted
by permission of the author. The lyrics from "The Boy in the
Bubble" and "Crazy Love," copyright © 1986 Paul Simon, are
reprinted by permission of Paul Simon Music. The lines from
"Gravy," by Raymond Carver, are from the bookA NewPath to
theWaterfall,copyright© 1989 bytheestateofRaymondCarver,
and are used by permission of Atlantic Monthly Press. The lines
from Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tzu, translated by Stephen Mitchell,
copyright © 1988 by Stephen Mitchell, are reprinted by permis-
sion of HarperCollins Publishers.
To Cathie,
who joins me in remembering
LAURA IRENE FOOTE
I928-1988
and
BARBARA ANN WANNER
I942-1988

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many people influenced this book. I thank them for what they
have been to me, but I Umit myself to naming those who
directly affected the manuscript. My agent, Doe Coover, an-
ticipated what the project was about and helped me hold onto
my sense of purpose. The editorial care of Henry Ferris, of
Houghton Mifflin, is apparent in every paragraph, if not every
line. Peg Anderson, my manuscript editor, clarified my
My
thoughts and intentions throughout. thanks also to Larry
Piatt for his assistance with the book's production.
What I know ofillness I have learned together with my wife,
Catherine Foote. This is our book, no less than they were our
illnesses.