Description
Book SynopsisZvinorwadza, a very common formulation heard among patients in the Mberengwa district, Zimbabwe, means it is painful or it hurts. This book deals with patients in a rural area of southern Africa and poses two basic questions: What does it mean to be ill in this part of the world and what do patients' life-worlds look like? Patients' illness experiences are described with the word
pain,
anxiety and sometimes
despair; their social situations are often marked by
vulnerability,
exposedness and
insecurity which apply to both genders, but particulary to women; their help-seeking behaviour is characterised by
pragmatism,
complementarity and
plurality; their conceptions about illnesses and aetiologies involve qualities of
uncertainty,
flexibility and
multidimensionality; and, finally, patients' treatment experiences can be depicted in three words: some experienced
ease, others complete
healing, while a significant group of the multi-episodical patients experienced
non-deliverance. It is concluded that the phenomena illness and healing need to be regarded holistically and that it is of crucial importance to acknowledge patients' own ideas concerning these issues.
