ABSTRACT
Academics from a number of disciplines and research perspectives have been interested in the problems raised by illness for the individual sufferer. Although their methods involve different procedures, their overall aim has been the same: to examine the complex experience of illness and to understand the social and individual meanings which the state of ill-health involves. An osteopathic practice was selected within the Glasgow area. Sixteen patients, eight men and eight women who attended over one day in March 1997 with what they self-defined as ‘back problems’, were interviewed in-depth for about an hour about their experiences. All of the patients were prompted to seek help in the first instance by back pain with immobility and swelling also mentioned as important symptoms. A small minority also mentioned the wish to dispel their fears that the pain indicated something abnormal.
