ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book emphasizes the phenomena of meaning-full disease. It has also hinted at some of the issues that arise and which must be explored more deeply and systematically if we are to make sense of it all. The book refers to many different kinds of story, but starts with one that is middle-of-the-road, at the less spectacular end of the meaning-full disease spectrum. The detail of this story suggests that there is a strong connection between the clinical activity or severity of the patient's rheumatoid arthritis and the problems she experiences in close relationship: Natalie is a forty-five year-old business woman. The stories provided in this book, and previous writings, suggest that just as 'story' or subjective factors pervade our humanness, so they pervade our diseases.
