, a very common formulation heard among patients in the Mberengwa district, Zimbabwe, means «it is painful» or «it hurts». This book deals with patients in a rural area of southern Africa and poses two basic questions: What does it mean to be ill in this part of the world and what do patients’ life-worlds look like? Patients’ illness experiences are described with the word , and sometimes ; their social situations are often marked by , and which apply to both genders, but particulary to women; their help-seeking behaviour is characterised by , and ; their conceptions about illnesses and aetiologies involve qualities of , and ; and, finally, patients’ treatment experiences can be depicted in three words: some experienced , others complete , while a significant group of the multi-episodical patients experienced . It is concluded that the phenomena illness and healing need to be regarded holistically and that it is of crucial importance to acknowledge patients’ own ideas concerning these issues.weiterlesen