The Patient Empowerment Paradox: Lyme Disease Rhetoric and Contested Health Literacies

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Sarah Ann Singer

The Patient Empowerment Paradox

Name: The Patient Empowerment Paradox
Price: 69.99 AUD
Availability: PreOrder
ISBN: 9781643366531

Lyme Disease Rhetoric and Contested Health Literacies

Sarah Ann Singer

$69.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
Pre-Order now

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English

University of South Carolina Press
31 March 2026

Semantics; Coping with illness

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.

By: Sarah Ann Singer
Imprint: University of South Carolina Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9781643366531
ISBN 10: 164336653X
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 31 March 2026
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

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.