Hawkins posits that mythic thinking pervades illness writing. Mythic constructs, she argues, organize the way patients understand their illness, how they interact with the institution of medicine, and how they write their narratives.
Myths are formulative in that they attempt to create order out of the disorientation of illness.
The book's chapters are organized around the myths enumerated above, with many examples. Myths that have an enabling function are adaptive, useful, help recovery or adjustment, ameliorate suffering. Commentary Publication of this second edition of Reconstructing Illness attests to the impact that the first edition of the book has had in Medical Humanities scholarship. In effect, Hawkins helped to launch and legitimate for study a new literary genre. Publisher Purdue Univ.