All of a Piece: A Life With Multiple Sclerosis
by
BARBARA D. WEBSTER
ŠThe Johns Hopkins University Press

All of a Piece is an exploration of the emotional and psychological consequences of chronic disease and its experience within American culture.  I discuss the process of acceptance of disease and disability and how that process is impeded by the dominant values of American culture and the treatment of chronic disease and disability in this society.  I wrote the book to explore the issues that seemed most critical to me after my own diagnosis and which I could find no help with—the impact of MS on my sense of self; its impact on relationships; issues of independence/dependence; and the effects on me of the social construction of disease.   I hope this book will be helpful to you. 

Some excerpts from reviews of All of a Piece.

If you have comments after reading All of a Piece, please email me.  

Contents
Foreword & Acknowledgments
Wrestling with a Phantom
Multiple Sclerosis: the Disease
Experience in Conflict with Received Wisdom
After the Diagnosis
Beyond the Self: The Cultural Frame
Uncertainty and Process
Chronically Ill in America
Beyond Acceptance

Order the book from
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Johns Hopkins University Press

Current information on MS
National Multiple Sclerosis Society
Multiple Sclerosis International Federation

Updated: April 11, 2009