ABSTRACT
Chapter One introduces the idea of stitching together medical humanities, sociology and medicine in the service of understanding suffering. Suffering is rarely mentioned in medical education even though the purpose of medicine is to relieve suffering. Basic concepts and properties of suffering are introduced based on the assumption that the experience of suffering is widespread within healthcare services and healthcare professionals are generally unprepared for encountering suffering. Going back to the basic arrangement of knowledge and the relational nature of suffering means that there are theoretical struggles with this interdisciplinary work that must be addressed through the integration of scholarly work such as critical race theory from outside the usual white epistemology.
