The Soul of Care

A deeply compassionate memoir and an extraodinary love story from an expert physician who chose to care for his ailing wife
When Dr. Arthur Kleinman, an experienced physician with years of practice, began caring for his wife, Joan, after she was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, he found just how far the act of caregiving extended beyond the boundaries of medicine. In The Soul of Care, Kleinman delivers a compassionate and inspiring story of his life in medicine and his marriage to Joan, while reflecting on the emotional and logistical aspects of caretaking, and the problems our society faces as medical technology advances, but compassion for patients no longer seems important.
Caregiving is long, hard, unglamorous work—at moments joyous, more often tedious, sometimes agonizing, but is always rich in meaning. In the face of our current politics and health care system, he emphasizes how we must ask uncomfortable questions of ourselves, and...