How chronic Lyme sheds new light on the rhetorical problem of patient empowerment

Modern medicine expects patients to be informed and empowered partners in their own care. However, when this care system fails to provide answers, many individuals with chronic and contested illnesses take matters into their own hands. These patients often seek treatment from providers who validate their self-diagnoses and prescribe unproven medical regimens. Sarah Ann Singer terms this dynamic the "patient empowerment paradox."

In The Patient Empowerment Paradox, Singer analyzes published narratives, interviews, healthcare provider websites, a patient data bank, and her own experience as a patient. She reveals how individuals become entangled in medical debates, misinformation, and decision fatigue that prevent them from healing. For Lyme researchers and scholars of other chronic and contested illnesses, this book provides a framework to better understand the rhetoric of medical uncertainty and lays the groundwork for improved patient outcomes.

Sarah Ann Singer is associate professor of English at the University of Central Florida. She has published articles in journals including Rhetoric of Health and Medicine, Composition Forum, and College English.

"This insightful analysis shows what happens when patients take their health matters into their own hands, exposing the limits of patient empowerment."—Lisa B. Keränen, University of Colorado Denver, author of Scientific Characters

"In this innovative study, Singer introduces a powerful new theoretical framework. Her exploration of health literacies in a patient's life and care is invaluable not only for scholars of rhetoric but also for healthcare professionals."—Lisa Melonçon, Clemson University, coeditor of Rhetoric of Health and Medicine As/Is

"Singer provides a nuanced, essential portrait of chronic illness in America, revealing how patients must navigate not only debilitating symptoms but also a crushing information ecosystem that demands constant—and sometimes dangerous—self-advocacy."—David Scales, Division of General Internal Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine and co-author of the recent National Academies of Science Report "Understanding and Addressing Misinformation about Science"

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The Patient Empowerment Paradox

Lyme Disease Rhetoric and Contested Health Literacies

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