In this Book

summary
For years after graduating from medical school, Dr. Clifton K. Meador assumed that symptoms of the body, when obviously not imaginary, indicate a disease of the body—something to be treated with drugs, surgery, or other traditional means. But, over several decades, as he saw patients with clear symptoms but no discernable disease, he concluded that his own assumptions were too narrow and, indeed, that the underlying basis for much of clinical medicine was severely limited.

Recounting a series of fascinating case studies, Meador shows in this book how he came to reject a strict adherence to the prevailing biomolecular model of disease and its separation of mind and body. He studied other theories and approaches—George Engel's biopsychosocial model of disease, Michael Balint's study of physicians as pharmacological agents—and adjusted his practice accordingly to treat what he called "nondisease." He had to retool, learn new and more in-depth interviewing and listening techniques, and undergo what Balint termed a "slight but significant change in personality."

In chapters like "The Woman Who Believed She Was a Man" and "The Diarrhea of Agnes," Meador reveals both the considerable harm that can result from wrong diagnoses of nonexistent diseases and the methods he developed to help patients with chronic symptoms not defined by a medical disease. Throughout the book, he recommends subsequent studies to test his observations, and he urges full application of the scientific method to the doctor-patient relationship, pointing out that few objective studies of these all-important interactions have ever been done.

Table of Contents

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  1. Cover
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  1. Table of Contents
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  1. Acknowledgments
  2. pp. vii-viii
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  1. Introduction
  2. pp. ix-xv
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  1. Prologue
  2. pp. 1-4
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  1. Chapter 1. An Unlikely Lesson from a Medical Desert
  2. pp. 5-14
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  1. Chapter 2. Texas Heat
  2. pp. 15-19
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  1. Chapter 3. Dr. Drayton Doherty and Miss Cootsie
  2. pp. 20-26
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  1. Chapter 4. All Some Patients Need Is Listening and Talking
  2. pp. 27-32
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  1. Chapter 5. Diagnoses Without Diseases
  2. pp. 33-39
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  1. Chapter 6. The Woman Who Believed She Was a Man
  2. pp. 40-48
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  1. Chapter 7. Mind and Body
  2. pp. 49-54
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  1. Chapter 8. Sweet Thing
  2. pp. 55-60
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  1. Chapter 9. New Clinical Interventions
  2. pp. 61-65
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  1. Chapter 10. Florence’s Symptoms
  2. pp. 66-80
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  1. Chapter 11. Symptoms Without Disease
  2. pp. 81-94
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  1. Chapter 12. Looking Back on Fairhope
  2. pp. 95-101
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  1. Chapter 13. The Diarrhea of Agnes
  2. pp. 102-107
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  1. Chapter 14. Dr. Jim’s Breasts
  2. pp. 108-113
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  1. Chapter 15. The Woman Who Would Not Talk
  2. pp. 114-123
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  1. Chapter 16. The Woman Who Could Not Tell Her Husband Anything
  2. pp. 124-132
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  1. Chapter 17. Staying Out of God’s Way
  2. pp. 133-141
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  1. Chapter 18. A Paradoxical Approach
  2. pp. 142-149
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  1. Chapter 19. You Can’t Be Everybody’s Doctor
  2. pp. 150-154
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  1. Chapter 20. In Tune with the Patient
  2. pp. 155-164
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  1. Bibliography
  2. pp. 165-168
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  1. Index
  2. pp. 169-175
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