Taking charge of breast cancer /

The title and cover art notwithstanding, this is not a self-help book written for newly diagnosed breast cancer patients. Instead, Ericksen (sociology, Temple Univ., and herself a breast cancer survivor) presents a well-crafted sociological analysis of the varying ways women approach their diagnosis and treatment. From her interviews of almost a hundred women, she has created a typology of approaches based on the women's attitudes toward biomedical authority and their involvement in decisions about their treatment. Each of four chapters focuses on one type, fleshing out the analysis with interview excerpts from a few representative cases. Additional chapters discuss the patients' responses to treatment consequences: breast disfigurement, hair loss, weight gain, and other bodily changes. One chapter, "Breast Cancer Activism, Education, Support," offers an unusual look at breast cancer fund-raising, public awareness, and patient support resources in the US, emphasizing philosophical and political disparity and linking constituencies back to her typology and case studies. Though grounded in solid scholarship, with some 50 pages of notes and bibliography, Ericksen's work is highly readable, a fine example of ethnographically based microsociology. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels. E. L. Maher emerita, Indiana University South Bend