ABSTRACT
The focus of this chapter is the relationship between self-help groups for people with a chronic medical condition and the medical profession. This will entail asking whether self-help groups are complementary to medicine and the professional health care system or part of a growing cultural challenge, questioning medical discourse and practice and playing a wider role in contributing to debate and change (Brown and Zavestoski 2004; Scambler and Kelleher 2006) in the public sphere.
