The patient movement as an emancipation movement

OBJECTIVE: To suggest that the patient movement is an emancipation movement. BACKGROUND: The patient movement is young and fragmented; and it can seem confusing because it lacks an explicit ideology with intellectual and theoretical underpinnings. METHODS: Drawing mainly on the experiences and the published writings of patient activists, the author identified eight aspects of the patient movement that could be compared with aspects of recognized emancipation movements: the radicalization of activists; the creation of new knowledge; the identification of guiding principles; the sense of direction; the unmasking of new issues; schisms within the movement and allies outside it; and the gradual social acceptance of some of the ideas (here standards of health care) that activists work to promote. RESULTS: Similarities between certain aspects of the patient movement and of the recognized emancipation movements were close. CONCLUSION: The patient movement can be regarded as an emancipation movement, albeit an immature one.