Colin Samson is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Essex where he has taught medical sociology, social policy, cultural studies and American studies since 1990. He has also been a Visiting Professor at the University of California at Berkeley and a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for the Study of Social Change at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the co-editor of The Social Construction of Social Policy (with Nigel South, 1996). He is currently working on a series of studies on the health and human rights of Aboriginal peoples in Canada.

"I found the book an extremely rewarding read and strongly recommend it to anyone with an interest in health and illness."Steven P Wainwright, King's College London

• Preface. Acknowledgements.Part I: Biomedicine and the Body:.1. Biomedicine and the Body: Colin Samson.2. Spaces and Classes: Michel Foucault.3. Natural Facts: A Historical Perspective on Science and Sexuality: L.J. Jordanova.4. Artificiality and Enlightenment: From Sociobiology to Biosociality: Paul Rabinow.Part II: Disease and the Self:.5. Disease and the Self: Colin Samson.6. Human Contact in Life-Threatening Environments: James J. Lynch.7. Cancer and the Self: How Illness Constellates Meaning: Roger Levin.8. Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors: Susan Sontag.9. Holistic Medicine: Fred Frohock.Part III: The Physician and the Patient: .10. The Physician and the Patient: Colin Samson.11. The Last Hippie: Oliver Sacks.12. The Body as Territory and Wonder: Arthur W. Frank.13. Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and the Medical Encounter: Lesley Cooper.14. A Fortunate Man: John Berger.Part IV: Creating Sickness: .15. Creating Sickness: Colin Samson.16. Results of Industrialisation: Freidrich Engels.17. Rats' Tails and Trypanosomes: Nature and Culture in Early Colonial Medicine: Megan Vaughan.18. Yuuyaraq: The Way of the Human Being: Harold Napoleon.19. Nervoso: Medicine, Sickness, and Human Needs: Nancy Scheper-Hughes.Index.