Illness and Meaning: A Review of Select Writings

Abstract

This article explores select writings of seven authors who have examined the experience of serious illness, the meaning of it, and how individuals create or discover that meaning. These authors have been seminal thinkers in the field, and their works have influenced current thinking about illness and meaning. This article explores six major themes from select works of these authors: (a) postmodernism, culture, and illness; (b) embodied knowledge and the sick person; (c) illness narratives and their moral function; (d) key relationships for the sick person; (e) illness and death; and (f) the meaning of being ill. Apart from these, areas for future exploration are included.