一段感人的残疾文化史，以及一个行动号召，呼吁改变我们的医疗系统和社会对患有复杂慢性病的人的支持方式。
从狼疮到莱姆病，这些隐性疾病常常被所有人忽视，唯独患者自己独自担当。为什么医疗机构总是坚持认为，当症状难以解释时，很可能只是你的错觉？
受其长期新冠患者研究的启发，医学人类学家Emily Mendenhall追溯了复杂慢性病的故事，以揭示为何研究和实践都如此失败。作者指出，慢性病的现实——通常涉及多个相互交织的问题，导致独特的、个体化的疾病——与医疗服务提供者的假设之间存在脱节，后者认为慢性病对每个人都有相同的影响。虽然隐形疾病历来与中产阶级联系在一起，但对于那些社会身份和生活经历可能与主流医学思想不一致的患者来说，被人相信自己生病了就更加困难了。《隐形的疾病》将文化历史与亲密访谈交织在一起，展现了那些身患复杂疾病的人的经历，揭示了医疗体系的失败——以及我们如何才能做得更好。
关于作者：
Emily Mendenhall is Professor in the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, a Guggenheim Fellow, and contributor to Scientific American, Psychology Today, and Vox.
好评：
"As a sleuth and storyteller, Emily Mendenhall looks behind the curtain at the little-known backstory of how the medical community has, for far too long, delegitimized 'invisible' diseases that have wreaked havoc on thousands of lives over decades, bringing us into the present with the public health catastrophe of long Covid. Invisible Illness is a call to arms to rethink how we approach infection-associated chronic illness."—Wes Ely, author of Every Deep-Drawn Breath: A Critical Care Doctor on Healing, Recovery, and Transforming Medicine in the ICU
"Mendenhall brings a poetic sensibility to lifting up chronic illness. She stands at the nexus of science and democracy, showcasing how the disabled rally together to live lives of dignity."—Ryan Prior, author of The Long Haul: How Long Covid Survivors Are Revolutionizing Healthcare
"This book challenges us to address discrimination in clinical care for people with complex chronic conditions like long Covid, questioning why some are believed while others aren't—a persistent disparity in US healthcare."—Oni Blackstock, primary care and HIV physician and founder of Health Justice
"Meticulously researched and exquisitely argued, Invisible Illness illuminates how biomedicine's struggle with ambiguity leaves suffering patients paying the price. Deeply compassionate and astutely incisive, Mendenhall's book is an outstanding contribution."—Rebecca J. Lester, author of Famished: Eating Disorders and Failed Care in America
"Mendenhall cuts a crystal-clear path through the thicket of diagnostic loose ends and symptom shifters surrounding complex chronic conditions to offer a gender-sensitive intersectional analysis of illnesses that are never invisible to the activists and allies who confront them."—Rayna Rapp, coauthor of Disability Worlds