Illness as a Metaphor, Ch. 6-8 Summary

Susan Sontag wrote Illness as a Metaphor, in 1986. Sontag wrote this piece to help change the way society used language to describe illness and disease moving society away from blaming the person who is diseased or ill. Her writings primarily focused on cultural attitudes of illness as this had a serious impact on her life. Her father suffered from Pulmonary Tuberculosis (a disease that attacks the lungs), which is discussed in greater detail in the previous chapters. Sontag herself suffered from acute myelogenous leukemia and died on December 28, 2004.

Sontag summarizes the arguments about disease made over the years in this reading, “With the advent of Christianity, which imposed more moralized notions of disease, as of everything else, a closer fit between disease and “victim” gradually evolved.”

This reading starts out describing disease as intentional to the person as an individual. It argues that the person causes the disease because they do not express themselves emotionally. It’s not about the personality traits of the individual, but rather how abstract and dissociated the individual is with life. “The sick man himself creates his disease, he is the cause of the disease and we seek none other.” (46) It is insisted that because it is not pleasant in our society to look in ourselves internally for the cause, is why doctors prefer to attack the outer causes.

The second part of this reading focuses primarily on specific diseases. Sontag argues that specific emotions or characteristics within oneself cause specific diseases. An example of this is that with women, ”grief and anxiety are among the most frequent causes of breast cancer.” (56) Another example is found among businessmen and mothers of large families, since they tend to suffer from grief, stress and are overworked making them ideal candidates for cancer. The reading concludes by examining illness by a means of two hypotheses; #1) every form of social irregularity should be considered an illness and treated to the best of abilities; #2) every illness can be considered psychologically. In other words, people should believe that they get sick because they unconsciously want to, therefore they deserve it. They also have the ability to cure themselves by curing their mental “self”.

This next section focuses primarily on the meaning of disease. Disease was thought in terms of metaphors. When something was considered to be disease like, it was shameful and ugly. For example, in the last two centuries syphilis was looked down upon as a demeaning and horrible disease. Other metaphors were used such as, evil and foul. They used these metaphors to create an unequal environment among society. Syphilis was also thought to be a disease “that corrupts morally and debilitates physically.” (59) Other diseases have also contaminated the way people feel about strength, weaknesses, and energy.

In order to treat these types of diseases traditional medicines was used. While it treated the physical part of the illness they didn’t find it effective for the emotional and mental health. To cure psychological aspects of the illness it was suggested to use treatments such as, cheerful surroundings, isolation from stress and family, healthy diet, exercise, and rest. Doctors believed that treatment of both the psychological and physical aspects were essential to the treatment and recovery process.

The evidence presented in this summary shows the way society and doctors views toward treating illness has changed. In other words, their views of disease changed from thinking they were caused by “moral pollution” and “mismanaged emotions” (71) to a focus on psychological and physical aspects of the illness.

Works Cited:

Sontag, Susan. “Chapters 6-8.” Illness as Metaphor. New York: Picador, 1977. Print. 43-71.