Honors Program
University Honors
Date of Award
5-2018
Thesis Professor(s)
Melissa Schrift
Thesis Professor Department
Sociology and Anthropology
Thesis Reader(s)
Lindsey King, Roger Blackwell
Abstract
The purpose of this thesis is to identify common themes presented in several illness narratives with specific attention paid to the relationship between patients and their physicians and patients and their families. Only illness narratives written in America and Western Europe were used for this thesis so the topic could be narrowed to the experience within the western biomedical field. While most research on illness narratives focuses on defining illness and illustrating the importance of introspective work, this thesis identifies patterns in a way that can shape the future treatment of chronically ill patients. This thesis also allows me to creatively explore a personal illness narrative, reinforcing these themes and contributing to the discussion of what physicians and families can do to make the illness experience more bearable for the patient.
Publisher
East Tennessee State University
Document Type
Honors Thesis - Withheld
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Davis, Kayla, "On Experiencing Illness in the Western Biomedical World: A Push for more Comprehensive Healthcare in America" (2018). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 460. https://dc.etsu.edu/honors/460
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.