The Imaginary Patient: How Diagnosis Gets Us Wrong

(Hardback)

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Description

A diagnosis - the label we give to a disease - is supposed to offer certainty: a system for classifying and treating sickness, valid across time and space, and uncomplicated by value judgements or monetary concerns. Yet, as Jules Montague knows from years of working with patients in several countries, the practice is tainted by the forces of imperialism, politics, discrimination and Big Pharma. At their worst, diagnostic labels can do active harm to patients.

Drawing on meticulous research and deep personal insight, Montague delves into historical diagnoses that have become extinct, and into modern maladies - from PTSD to oppositional defiant disorder to excited delirium - and explores whether they too may prove not to be true diagnostic labels at all. Eye-opening and urgent, this book reveals the heart-breaking, thought-provoking stories of real people living and dying in the shadow of their diagnoses.

Reviews

The Imaginary Patient is a great stride forward in the way medical stories are told. Nobody who reads it will experience a doctor's appointment the same way again. Montague's writing is empathetic, surprising and forensic all at once. An extremely valuable book * Caroline Crampton, author of The Way to the Sea *
A shocking history of the many ways in which medical diagnoses have "shown themselves to be a form of obfuscation"... Heartbreaking... [it] will make you see doctors differently * Telegraph *
A compelling basis for change... A richly researched book that provides ample food for thought and ammunition for change in the way diagnosis is done -- Medical Journalists' Association

Author Bio

Jules Montague is a former consultant neurologist, and the author of Lost and Found, published in 2018. She writes about health and science for the BBC, Lancet, Guardian and Observer. She has spoken at TEDx London and appeared on BBC Radio 4 and Sky News.