"ILLNESS AS A METAPHOR" (SUSAN SONTAG) & "DREAD DISEASE, THE" (JAMES T. PATTERSON).   Term Paper ID:19935 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines authors' views on cancer from psychological & sociological perspectives.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Examines authors' views on cancer from psychological & sociological perspectives. Paper Introduction: Cancer: A Cultural Perspective Diseases which have uncertain causes and ineffectual treatments tend to become the focus of society's deepest dreads and weaknesses. Such diseases often take on moralistic and metaphoric associations, filling psychological and sociological needs for the individuals and groups in which they occur. Two writers, Susan Sontag and James T. Patterson, discuss these psychological and sociological concepts in relation to cancer in their respective books, Illness as Metaphor and The Dread Disease: Cancer and Modern American Culture. It is the purpose of this paper to analyze these two books, focusing mainly on the psychological and sociological aspects of cancer. Ms. Sontag discusses the disease of cancer as a metaphor for the society, as her book title suggests. She strenuously rejects Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Another feared that, because three people in her apartment buildinghad died with cancer, she might "catch" it, too. It is as if a society needs a handynegative focus onto which to blame the unexplainable unhappiness, problems,and weaknesses of the individuals and groups of the time, and if onedisease becomes curable, such as tuberculosis, then another is needed. Auden wrote, Childless men get it, And men when they retire; It's as if there had to be some outlet For their foiled creative fire. Herapproach to the issues surrounding cancer are rather broad and literary.Accepting that dramatic plays, literature, and prominent historical figuresact out the prevailing moods of their times, she refers to many literaryreferences to explore the place of cancer in the American culture. Sontag says that cancer has become imbued with the myth that it is adisease of passion, or more precisely, the repression of passion. People who have cancer find themselves shunned byrelatives and friends, their possessions are assumed to be contaminatedwith the disease, and contact with the cancer patient is viewed as atrespass, a violation of some mysterious taboo. There is the "fight" against cancer. Suchdiseases often take on moralistic and metaphoric associations, fillingpsychological and sociological needs for the individuals and groups inwhich they occur. It is the purpose of this paper toanalyze these two books, focusing mainly on the psychological andsociological aspects of cancer. She strenuously rejects the idea thatillnesses are caused by negative feelings or environmental stresses, butshe does embrace the idea of illnesses having societal and psychologicalpurposes, many of which are beyond the control of the individual. (1978). 6). Lyndon's family and physicians continued to denythe fact even four years after his death. These trends seem to be a backlash against the over-medicalization of the human body, a response to the individual's struggleto cope with an industrial, technical, impersonal society. Big Mama exploded withterror and rage when she heard the truth about her husband's cancer(Patterson, 1987, p. Patterson compares the war againstcancer with the space race, the smashing of the atom, and the appeal topatriotism. The deaths of 462, people from the many forms of cancer in the onetypical year of 1985 evoke fears in the American public. This is another example of the values ofthe society in which the disease occurs. Cancer is spokenof as the "killer disease" and the patients are "victims." It would seemat first glance that the disease is the focus of this negative labeling,but unfortunately the patients themselves become culpable. Patterson describes cancer as a progressively middle-classphenomenon, which eventually became evident among prominent public figures--Gertrude Stein, Babe Ruth, Humphrey Bogart, John Foster Dulles, ArthurGodfrey, and Tom Dooley. vii). These are economic terms, andSontag most skillfully relates the prevalence of the disease to theeconomics of twentieth century abnormal growth and repression of energy(refusal to consume or spend) (Sontag, 1978, p. Thepolicy of equivocating about the nature of the disease reflects thesocietal values that death is experienced as something to hide--best if ithappens while we're asleep or unconscious. Cancer: A Cultural Perspective Diseases which have uncertain causes and ineffectual treatments tendto become the focus of society's deepest dreads and weaknesses. However, many, like President Lyndon Johnson, whohad a skin cancer removed from his ankle, continued to conceal theirsituation from the media. Patterson,discuss these psychological and sociological concepts in relation to cancerin their respective books, Illness as Metaphor and The Dread Disease:Cancer and Modern American Culture. She comments that any disease that is treated as a mystery and isfeared will eventually come to be morally, if not literally, contagious(Sontag, 1978, p. Astuberculosis was once the fashionable disease of sexual excess, so nowcancer is explained as the result of the ravages of sexual frustration(Sontag, 1978, p. These are powerful words to use to describe a bodily condition,and they convey the psychological burden carried by this particulardisease. Yet the denial surroundingcancer is stronger than that associated with other diseases. ReferencesPatterson, J. This apparently is a language of theera, and it becomes inappropriately focused on the disease of the moment,often most probably unconsciously. Two writers, Susan Sontag and James T. The fear of the public is pervasive, evidenced by responses to anarticle published by Peyton Rouse in Life magazine in 1962. Thecharacter Big Daddy had cancer, but the fact was concealed from him andwhispered among his sons and daughters-in-law. Peterson explores the involvement of the government in cancerresearch and the large amount of money that has come to be poured intoexploration of cures for cancer. Like Sontag, Patterson mentions that literary treatment of cancer isan indication of its position in the minds of the people. James T. He merely relates the saga of the cancer experience inthe whole of American history, judging neither its presence particularlynor the reaction of the American people to the cancer phenomenon. Patterson methodically traces the development of the disease from thetime of the first widely known patient, General Grant, through the rise ofthe medical profession, the quack practitioners, and the proliferation ofresearch and government intervention. Cancer cells, according to textbookdescriptions, are those cells which have shed the mechanism for"restraining" or "self-limiting" growth. Government and money symbolizecontrol, and a society's attempts to control the uncontrollable--the fears,dreads, and malaise of a whole people. One readerwrote, "Is there anything I can do to kill the germ?" (Patterson, 1987, p.237). The dread disease: Cancer and the modernAmerican culture. Itcauses one to wonder whether, if her book had been written 15 years later,the emphasis would have been on the disease of AIDS. Both Sontag and Patterson effectivelyexplore the enigma of the meaning of illness for the American people, eachfrom a differing perspective--one creative and literary, and the otherhistorical and sociological. His book is more lengthy, more factual, and less opinionatedthan Sontag's work. 63). Until recently, medicinerather paternalistically did not even tell the patient of the cancerdiagnosis, preferring to inform only the close family members, as if theword itself could kill the patient. Ms. Sontag discusses the disease of cancer as a metaphor for thesociety, as her book title suggests. 248). Cancer has taken on this particular society's punitive notionsregarding disease. Diet, visualization, balanced living, moderation of addictivehabits, and adequate sleep and exercise came to be viewed as solutions tothe cancer dilemma, along with a renewed faith in the healing powers ofspiritual beliefs. 57). Heremains somewhat objective, bringing out the cultural roots andmanifestations, the medical politics and ideology of several generations ofcancer phobia. One gains a sense of the position ofthis disease against the broad sweep of American culture from Patterson'srelentless listings of facts and figures. Patterson's book, published about a decade later than Sontag's,chronicles the development of the American public's disenchantment with themedical community and experimentation with wholistic views of health andhealing. In 1935,novelist Thomas Wolfe described in graphic terms the suffering of thecharacter Gant with cancer in the fictional work, Of Time and the River.Poet W. Like Sontag,Patterson is sensitive to the words used to describe the disease--"insidious, mysterious, lawless, savage, and relentless" (Patterson, 1987,p. She is sensitive to the languageused to describe the feelings of isolation, unsatisfactory relationships,and feelings of being void of self. It is said that cancer cells show unregulated,abnormal, incoherent growth. A large body of research supports the emotional causes of cancer.Sontag refutes these, saying that the subjects exhibiting feelings ofdepression and dissatisfaction with their lives are no different from otherpeople who also feel depression and dissatisfaction with their lives, butwithout having the disease of cancer. T. The conventionsof cancer treatment make the demonic enemy not only a lethal disease, but ashameful one (Sontag, 1978, p. They do not bring solutions but certainly doprovide unusual thought-provoking perspectives on the place of cancer insociety. 1 3)The playwright Tennessee Williams dramatized the denial and fearsurrounding cancer in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, first staged in 1955. Illness as metaphor. Cancer, according to Sontag, takes on the emotional overtones of thesociety, more or less carrying the unresolved garbage of the particularera. 21). (Patterson, 1987, p. New York: Farrar, Straus, andGiroux.----------------------- 5 The tumor has energy, and "it" is out ofcontrol, not the patient. (1987). In broad societal terms, Sontag compares the language used todescribe cancer growth as even related to the economics of the time periodsin which it flourishes. Patterson explores the dread disease from a historicalperspective. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Sontag, S. This aspect of lying to patients is an indication of how demanding itis to die in a dignified way in an industrial, technological society. 69). H. Cancer cure was even a political issue for Nixon and TedKennedy (Patterson, 1987, p. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.