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Diagnosis and the Illness Experience

“…For the physician, diagnosis confers specificity and validity to illness. But diagnosis can mean something altogether different for the patient; Kleinman suggests that physicians can be led in this pursuit to “discount the moral reality of suffering” and its relational effects on families and communities . Meanwhile, the absence of a diagnosis is a disaster that can threaten the equanimity of all involved—how can physicians treat and heal something with no name?…”