Patienthood and Communication

Patienthood and Communication is an engagingly personal narrative detailing the author’s experience living with, and adapting to, a degenerative and incurable eye disease (MacTel). Beyond the personal, this poignant story more broadly illustrates the ways in which communication enables individuals to adjust to serious health threats.

Author and subject Peter Kellett highlights his important interactions with health care providers, family members, friends, colleagues, students, and others that provide shape to his journey. Kellett displays a compelling capacity for self-reflection in his descriptions of the life changes his vision loss imposes upon him, among them changes to his identity, in relationships and life plans. Adaptation and flexibility reveal themselves as central tenets of his learning to become a self-empowered patient. Perhaps the most crucial element to his adjustment is, however, positive communication, which is depicted throughout the book as the driving force in Kellett’s journey into patienthood.

“"This book is powerful, poignant, and illustrative of the ways communication enables individuals to adjust to serious and potentially debilitating health threats. I really like the insights provided in the book about interactions with health care providers, family members, colleagues, students, and others across the trajectory of the author's health journey. The coverage in the chapters of self-disclosure and social support are especially meaningful. I also like the profound self-reflectiveness in the book, describing changes in the author's self-image and life plans, illustrating the importance of adaptation and flexibility. Finally, I really like the positive communication theme that runs through the book as a critical communication orientation for promoting control over our lives through successful patient-hood!"--Gary Kreps, Ph.D., FAAHBUniversity Distinguished Professor, Department of CommunicationDirector, Center for Health and Risk CommunicationGeorge Mason University”

"This book is powerful, poignant, and illustrative of the ways communication enables individuals to adjust to serious and potentially debilitating health threats. I really like the insights provided in the book about interactions with health care providers, family members, colleagues, students, and others across the trajectory of the author's health journey. The coverage in the chapters of self-disclosure and social support are especially meaningful. I also like the profound self-reflectiveness in the book, describing changes in the author's self-image and life plans, illustrating the importance of adaptation and flexibility. Finally, I really like the positive communication theme that runs through the book as a critical communication orientation for promoting control over our lives through successful patient-hood!"—Gary Kreps, Ph.D., FAAHBUniversity Distinguished Professor, Department of CommunicationDirector, Center for Health and Risk CommunicationGeorge Mason University

Peter M. Kellett (Ph.D. Southern Illinois University, Carbondale) is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at The University of North Carolina, Greensboro. His work centers on the various ways that personal narratives and personal narrative methodology can help promote understanding, empowerment, health and wellness, and a more just and fair world through communication.

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