The patient, the nurse, and the philosopher: seeing Rose through the eyes of Merleau-Ponty -- If a lion could talk: phenomenological interviewing and interpretation -- The human experience of the human body -- "It's like getting kicked by a mule": living with an implanted defibrillator -- "Now it's me and this pain": living with chronic pain -- The human experience of the world of others -- "We all became diabetics": the experience of living with a diabetic sibling -- "Walking in the dark": the experience of living with a daughter who has an eating disorder -- "She became an alien": the father's experience of living with postpartum depression -- The human experience of time -- "One day you're working and the next day you're an invalid": recovering after a stroke -- "The point of no return": formerly abused women's experience of staying out of the abusive relationship -- "It was the dark night of the soul": wresting meaning from a time of spiritual distress -- The human experience of the non-human world -- "Eventually it'll be over": the dialectic between confinement and freedom in the world of the hospitalized patient -- "Like a bunch of cattle": the patient's experience of the outpatient health care environment.