At thirteen, Ed Cohen was diagnosed with Crohn's disease--a chronic, incurable condition that nearly killed him in his early twenties. At his diagnosis, his doctors...

At thirteen, Ed Cohen was diagnosed with Crohn's disease--a chronic, incurable condition that nearly killed him in his early twenties. At his diagnosis, his doctors told him that the best he could hope for would be periods of remission. Unfortunately, doctors never mentioned healing as a possibility. In On Learning to Heal, Cohen draws on fifty years of living with Crohn's to consider how Western medicine's turn from an "art of healing" toward a "science of medicine" deeply affects both medical practitioners and their patients. He demonstrates that although medicine can now offer many seemingly miraculous therapies, medicine is not and has never been the only way to enhance healing. Exploring his own path to healing, he argues that learning to heal requires us to desire and value healing as a vital possibility. With this book, Cohen advocates reviving healing's role for all those whose lives are touched by illness.

Author: Ed Cohen
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 01/03/2023
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.72lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.51d
ISBN: 9781478019329


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 02/06/2023

About the Author
Ed Cohen is Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Rutgers University and author of A Body Worth Defending, also published by Duke University Press. He hosts a therapeutic practice for people interested in healing: healingcounsel.com.