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Author Abel, Emily K., author.

Title Sick and tired : an intimate history of fatigue / Emily K. Abel
Published Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [2021]

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Description 1 online resource (196 pages)
Series Studies in social medicine
Studies in social medicine.
Contents Living with fatigue -- Learning from pain and depression -- A history of fatigue -- Rest: "becoming fit for the forthcoming labor" -- Fighting fatigue -- Remembering sickness -- Rewriting the story
Summary "Blending vivid auto-ethnography with historical and cultural analysis, this book examines three themes common to the experience of chronic fatigue patients. The first is the denigration of subjective knowledge in the medical community. Since there are no tools with which to diagnose fatigue, there can be no medical confirmation, making it difficult to convince doctors, and often by extension the patients themselves, that these problems are real. Without a diagnosis, there are no prescribed guidelines and as a result, patients often create alternative cultural spaces in the form of support groups that give primacy importance to the role of subjective experience. Chronic fatigue syndrome advocates have repeatedly called attention to the paltry amount of research funds directed to that condition. Because everyone gets tired and endures aches and pain at some point, the public also dismisses persistent pain and fatigue. The second is an analysis of the cultural emphasis on productivity. Although Abel was reluctant for many years to view her fatigue as a disability, its impact on her life immediately forced her to face some of the most emotionally charged and persistent questions about work and morality: In a society that places inordinate emphasis on work ethic, who is entitled to remain idle? How can unemployed people find another source of human worth? When does devotion to work become excessive? Finally, Abel examines the prevalence of personal triumphal narratives in the cultural production of recovery"-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on March 14, 2022)
Subject Abel, Emily K.
Chronic fatigue syndrome.
Fatigue -- Popular works
Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic
HISTORY -- United States -- General.
Chronic fatigue syndrome
Fatigue
Genre/Form e-books.
Popular works
Livres numériques.
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781469661803
1469661802
9781469661797
1469661799