Abstract
Contestation of illness can have numerous meanings. In social science it is most frequently considered as contested illness, with patients and advocates challenging medical perspectives. But contestation is perceptible in a number of ways with illness, including negotiation between physicians and patients over diagnosis or treatment, patients attempting to bring conditions or etiologies to medical notice, challenges over the meaning of illness, and even as the utilization of alternative medicine. Rarely do we see various representations of contestation collected in a single volume (for an exception, see Kroll-Smith, Brown, & Gunter, 2000).
In this final and reflective chapter of this