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The Invisible Kingdom

Reimagining Chronic Illness

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The Invisible Kingdom

By: Meghan O'Rourke
Narrated by: Meghan O'Rourke
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About this listen

 A landmark exploration of one of the most consequential and mysterious issues of our time: the rise of chronic illness and autoimmune diseases

A silent epidemic of chronic illnesses afflicts tens of millions of Americans: these are diseases that are poorly understood, frequently marginalized, and can go undiagnosed and unrecognized altogether. Renowned writer Meghan O’Rourke delivers a revelatory investigation into this elusive category of “invisible” illness that encompasses autoimmune diseases, post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, and now long COVID, synthesizing the personal and the universal to help all of us through this new frontier.

Drawing on her own medical experiences as well as a decade of interviews with doctors, patients, researchers, and public health experts, O’Rourke traces the history of Western definitions of illness, and reveals how inherited ideas of cause, diagnosis, and treatment have led us to ignore a host of hard-to-understand medical conditions, ones that resist easy description or simple cures. And as America faces this health crisis of extraordinary proportions, the populations most likely to be neglected by our institutions include women, the working class, and people of color.

Blending lyricism and erudition, candor and empathy, O’Rourke brings together her deep and disparate talents and roles as critic, journalist, poet, teacher, and patient, synthesizing the personal and universal into one monumental project arguing for a seismic shift in our approach to disease. The Invisible Kingdom offers hope for the sick, solace and insight for their loved ones, and a radical new understanding of our bodies and our health. Medical Physical Illness & Disease Professionals & Academics Health Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Medicine Mental Health Chronic Illness
All stars
Most relevant
Currently moving through my own chaos-quest narrative of chronic illness, as so so many of us are, this was a powerful balm of recognition, grief, anger, and compassion for all sufferers of chronic illness. Even with Meghan’s own discovery of treatments that brought profound positive changes to her state of sickness, she resists any tidy recovery narratives, and turns her attention to the problems with the present practices of industrialised/neoliberalised western medicine rather than to what sufferers could/should do. She also demonstrates the extreme lengths that chronically sick people go to in trying to improve their own health, as they face dismissal and invalidation (and psycho-pathologisation, which is v much my experience) from medical authorities. She also acknowledges the privileges that she comes from, and situated her own struggles in a great field of suffering that disproportionately affects those at the intersections of multiple systematic oppressions.

A sorely needed read/listen for all who are sick, all who are not, and—more than anything—all who are trained to treat us.

Deeply moving words of recognition

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brilliant fusion of education & memoir, o’rourke captures the slippery experience of illness so well, and translates the medical science for a layperson audience. her exploration of the cultural ideologies underpinning the treatment of poorly understood illnesses, and the impact this has on patients is profound.

i hope many doctors will read this.

important book

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.