The authors of this fascinating and thought-provoking book are academic colleagues at King's College London. Neil Vickers is Professor of English Literature, and Health Humanities and Derek Bolton is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and Psychopathology. Their book came to my attention when Neil Vickers presented it at one of the Political Mind series of seminars organised by the British Psychoanalytical Society. Not only did he draw on Winnicott and relational psychoanalysis to discuss interactions between the healthy and the sick, but he also introduced an approach to the social and cultural context of health and illness with infant development and psychodynamics as a key part of the picture. It generated a rich discussion with psychoanalytic colleagues.

The book explores what it means to be ill in our society and argues that the care and compassion we would wish for frequently fails to materialise. Instead, relational and social gulfs emerge resulting in isolation and abandonment.