The stories that patients tell - and the questions these stories raise - drive Muller's text. A young man has seriously overdosed, but with what? Why has a successfully medicated schizophrenic suddenly begun to hear voices again? Has a head injury caused paranoid psychosis? And what are we to make of a patient who is willing to risk death attempting to "drown" his hiccups by drinking up to 12 litres of fluid a day? For these and equally fascinating questions, Muller is a sure-handed guide, working his way through custodial, socioeconomic and legal dimensions of ER work. An intriguing account of the competing agendas that enter into the handling of emergencies, this title is also a compilation of evocative patient stories about the subjective experience of being ill.