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This text presents a detailed account of the first study on patients's privacy in an acute care hospital in Germany. The research is comprised of patients's accounts of their experience of hospitalization. Apart from numerous events which continuously invade an inpatients's privacy, these patients identified dependence on strangers and feelings of helplessness as creating stress. It may be that issues compromising privacy actually hinder the aim of a hospital stay, namely, recovery from illness. The important roles of individual communication and negotiations between staff and patients are particularly emphasized. Emerging via substantive theory, the author proposes a tentative theory of patient privacy. The book also includes an evaluation of the study methods which is useful for the purposes of critique and replication. The results of this study are relevant to all health professionals and more generally, to anyone who may become a consumer of health care as a patient.