Freedom to Breathe

Freedom to Breathe is the extraordinary memoir from one of Slovenia's most important cultural personages, Elena Pecaric. Part autobiographical account of her living with congenital progressive spinal muscular amyotrophy-revolving around a particular episode when she was 28 that severely exacerbated her chronic respiratory condition-and part psychological and sociological reflection on the singular personal and wider political implications of her lived experience, this unique book draws out the philosophical import of freedom, the decision, the body, and the dialectic between health and illness.

A defiant testament to rejections of oppressive well-meaningness, Freedom to Breathe is a tremendous survey of the determination of the will, and of the determining effects that the will can have on and in one's life, from its being wielded against the advice of others, to its structuring of the joys and pains of day-to-to-living.