We become ill in ways our parents and grandparents did not, with diseases unheard of and treatments undreamed
of by them. Illness has changed in the postmodern era--roughly the period since World War II--as dramatically as
technology, transportation, and the texture of everyday life. Exploring these changes, David B. Morris tells the
fascinating story, or stories, of what goes into making the postmodern experience of illness different, perhaps
unique. Even as he decries the overuse and misuse of the term "postmodern," Morris shows how brightly
ideas of illness, health, and postmodernism illuminate one another in late-twentieth-century culture.
Modern medicine traditionally separates disease--an objectively verified disorder--from illness--a patient's subjective
experience. Postmodern medicine, Morris says, can make no such clean distinction; instead, it demands a biocultural
model, situating illness at the crossroads of biology and culture. Maladies such as chronic fatigue syndrome and
post-traumatic stress disorder signal our awareness that there are biocultural ways of being sick.
The biocultural vision of illness not only blurs old boundaries but also offers a new and infinitely promising
arena for investigating both biology and culture. In many ways Illness and Culture in the Postmodern Age leads
us to understand our experience of the world differently.