Genes and organs

The fourth chapter, Genes and organs examines how the interiors of our bodies structure and influence our exterior surfaces and identities and shape our daily lives, and how the inner workings of our bodies, the circulations of blood and the flows of air, affect and betray us. This chapter traces the transmission of conditions from their interior origins within the body to the outside world of everyday life and considers how the inner landscapes of the body are both visible and significant. Ami has asthma. She has learnt the warning signals of an asthma attack, from the wheezing sound originating from her chest, to the tight feeling in her shoulders, and the sudden pain in her teeth. She knows when to take her inhaler, and she also knows when to reach for the phone and call the emergency services. In moments like these, illness is transported from the safe and invisible interior of the body to the outside world.

Exercise

The second chapter, Exercise, considers the rhythm of our bodies in motion and the complicated relationships between exercise and illness, as both a necessity and a joy. Like eating, the significance of exercise is redefined by illness, and the body is maintained, challenged, and re-known through it. Exercise regimes can provide control, treatment and an alternative form of medication so that through physical activity bodies feel strong, independent, and free in spite of illness. But ill bodies are prone to overexertion, and exercise can reinforce their dependence and vulnerability as well as their strength. For Anna, who has depression, exercise has become a form of self-medication. Running and cycling regularly make her feel less depressed, so she tries to be physically active at least four times a week. Disruption to this routine can cause her mood to plummet quickly, showing the dependence that she has on her body.

Conclusion

Learning from the lives portrayed, the conclusion seeks to relate some of the findings to other literatures and ways of thinking about illness in more detail, providing some evidence for the arguments that the book makes and offering a more theoretical discussion. This chapter explores what is at stake in these accounts, from ideas of care, control and choice, to bodily doubt and the felt politics of stigma.

Hands and hearts

The sixth chapter, Hands and hearts, considers the emotional connections between bodies, minds and landscapes, and touches on themes of finding a home and belonging in the world. Through this chapter, we see how bodies find their own routes through the spaces of everyday life, and how, just as illness refuses to be contained within bodies, bodies refuse to be confined by illness. Anna, who has depression, does not have any of the same doubts about her hands that she does about her mind and its thoughts. She never thinks twice about their ability to do things, and they do not seem to suffer from the same anxiety and self-hatred that she does. Anna’s acute mind-body split illustrates how she belongs in the world through her body and at the same time feels distant from it.

Feet and legs

Moving from the interior to the exterior, the book continues with the fifth chapter, Feet and legs, body parts that, as our connection to the earth and our way of navigating through the world, are perhaps our most direct link to the landscapes in which we live. How do our feet and legs, as well as the shoes and canes that accompany them, connect us to, negotiate us through, and redefine how we know the built environment? How do our bodies redefine the topography of our worlds? This chapter considers the importance of these seemingly simple body parts and the influence that they have on the ways in which we move, dress and travel. Anya has muscular dystrophy and the muscles in her legs are wasting away. But by finding new ways of using her body and by learning her environment in detail, she has held onto her ability to walk and her independence.

Sleep

The third chapter, Sleep, looks at how the demands of our working and social lives can conflict with the demands of our body, and at how illness redefines our lives through the need to sleep. While rest is sometimes the best cure for illness, sleep clashes with social expectations, destroys routines, and causes conflicts. The need to sleep is perhaps the most delicate revelation of the body’s vulnerability, and bodies that need to sleep more simply do not fit in with the demands of modern life. As such, they present themselves as things that demand care, that are frail and difficult to manage. Aiden has rheumatoid arthritis and rest is a better cure than any drug, but with a modern life in London it is the hardest thing to come by. Sometimes his body screams for sleep to rest and rejuvenate, evidencing the conflict between how Aiden wants to live and what his body needs.

Eat

The first chapter, Eat, focuses on the importance of diet, showing how the basic need to eat can become a defining feature of our lives, whether we are calculating carbohydrates, seeking the nutrition that our bodies need, or controlling their shape and size. Through eating, the processes and practices that create routines, rules, cures, and rituals of care become visible, and the ways in which the body is reconfigured by its material needs become apparent. As a significant form of managing illness eating is a way of caring for the body, but it is one that creates conflict, turning eating into a duty and a reward. Ava has rheumatoid arthritis. In her search for a magic bullet to cure her of her daily aches and pains, she has consulted nutritionists, bought supplements, subscribed to diet and nutrition email lists, and read countless magazines, books and websites. Disciplined eating forms part of Ava’s strategy for health, and routines structured around food provide a sense of security and control, revealing significant dedication to caring for the body.

Introduction

This book is the story of twelve people, each living with illness. Based on ethnographic research conducted over one year, it unfolds everyday experiences of living with a long term physical or mental health condition. In doing so, the book offers an innovative account of the body, health and illness in everyday life told from a sociological perspective.