Hands ( Weekly Reader Early Learning Library) Book

This book articulates important and enduring concepts for the practice of medicine. Most of all, it challenges the "either/or" paradigm in which the science of medicine roundly trumps the art of medicine by offering a robust defense of a "both/and" paradigm with the patient at the center of practice. It reminds clinicians of the noble goals with which we entered medicine, and enriches our understanding of what those goals mean.

Although Cassell illustrates his analysis with lots of stories, at times it is quite thick with abstract concepts. Nonetheless, he states them clearly and provides ample opportunity to digest them. I have read few better discussions of personhood, the threat of illness to personhood, the difference between illness and disease, and why medicine should aim above all to treat illness, promote function, and relieve suffering.