Serving as an introduction to the book, this chapter starts out with some reflections on how confrontation with disease is a universal human experience that has shaped healing practices throughout history. The introduction briefly illustrates that with the rise of scientific medicine in the nineteenth century, the landscape of these practices underwent significant changes, setting the stage for the twin phenomena of medical socialization and medicalization of social life. These transformative processes, along with medicine’s numerous advances and limitations, are explored in more detail in the ensuing chapters. This introductory chapter not only provides a historical context and presents key issues to be addressed, but it also lays out the goals and structure of the entire book.