The book is grounded upon the author's extensive professional involvement with physical diseases that are a powerful expression of the patients' emotional themes and life-stories. They are meaning-full diseases. They occur commonly, and are the most compelling argument for an urgent acknowledgment of the role of meanings in the healing process. Following the pattern of his first book, Somatic Illness and the Patient's Other Story, the author shows in case after case that listening and responding to the "story" of patients suffering from persistent physical diseases frequently leads to major...