Introduction: writing a mosaic
A note on reading this book: thinking about trigger warnings
Brilliant imperfection: white pines
Ideology of cure
Birth
Prayers, crystals, vitamins
Beliefs about disability
Overcoming disability
Hope in motion
Rebelling against cure
The restoration of health
Walking in the prairie
Brilliant imperfection: twitches and tremors
Violence of cure
Defect
At the center of cure lies eradication
Personhood is a weapon
Great turmoil
Brilliant imperfection: maples
In tandem with cure
Cerebral palsy
Reading diagnosis
Disorder
Antibiotics and acupuncture
The price of diagnosis
Useful, but to whom?
Brilliant imperfection: stone
Nuances of cure
Wishing you less pain
Wanting cure
Birthmark
Cautionary tale
Body-mind yearning
Yearning for the peeper pond
Jostling my anti-cure politics
Your suicide haunts me
Brilliant imperfection: shells
Structure of cure
The medical-industrial complex
A far-reaching network
Troubled and troubling body-minds
Variations on cure
Skin lighteners and hot springs
Brilliant imperfection: hermit crabs
How cure works
Cure just around the corner
Charity events
Shifting technologies
A pharmaceutical history of eflornithine
Brilliant imperfection: rolling
At the center of cure
Carrie Buck I: yearning
Carrie Buck II: torrent of history
Carrie Buck III: feebleminded
Lives reduced to case files
Living with monkey
Schizophrenia
Brilliant imperfection: Myrtle
Moving through cure
Choosing disability
Airports and cornfields
Interdependence
Wanting a flat chest
Gender identity disorder
Claiming ourselves
Brilliant imperfection: drag queen
Impacts of cure
Endless questions
Ashley's father
Resisting intelligence
Feeling broken
Being fixed
Shame and pride
Brilliant imperfection: survival notes
Promise of cure
Normal and natural
Finding wholeness
Gender transition
Bullied
A maze of contradictions
Mama, what will you swear?
Walking in the prairie again
Brilliant imperfection: cycling.