ABSTRACT
In this chapter we survey the effects of illness, diagnostic procedures, hospitalization, and impending death on the patient and the loneliness he thus experiences. While hospitals, medical procedures, and treatment are all geared to help the patient survive illness, it is the anxiety, powerlessness, alienation, disconnection, and loneliness that the patient needs to deal with, and which medicine is not well equipped to address. This chapter, rather than being an experiment, is written in order to summarize and highlight the emotional, psychological, and social needs of the patient. Indications of what can be changed in medical settings and approach are intertwined throughout the discussion.
