This short, easy-to-read book... has a great potential to improve the way clinicians understand the process of breaking bad news. -- Annals of Internal MedicineAt last, we have a wise, useful, readable textbook on the communication of unpleasant information. -- New England Journal of Medicine

Modern medicine is one of the most successful branches of science, with a distinguished history of conquering many of the twentieth century's deadliest diseases. Yet today people are turning in record numbers to alternative therapies that have little or no scientific basis. Herbalists, homeopaths, crystal therapists, chiropractors, acupuncturists, and countless other unconventional practitioners are enjoying thriving businesses. What accounts for this flight from reason in the face of hard evidence that medical doctors do a better job of treating disease and alleviating suffering than their...