Essay #2 Assignment: Illness as Metaphor

“My subject is not physical illness itself but the uses of illness as a figure or metaphor. My point is that illness is not a metaphor, and the most truthful way of regarding illness—and the healthiest way of being ill—is one most purified of, most resistant to, metaphoric thinking. Yet, it is hardly possible to take up one’s residence in the kingdom of the ill unprejudiced by the lurid metaphors with which it has been landscaped. It is toward an elucidation of those metaphors, and a liberation from them, that I dedicate this inquiry” (Sontag 4).

For this assignment, you will be applying Susan Sontag’s method from Illness as Metaphor (1978) to identify figurative language used to describe illnesses, diseases, or syndromes. You should select an illness that has no known demonstrable cause or one in which many causes are speculated.  Your essay should make a claim about whether or not the language used to discuss your disease supports, refutes, or complicates Sontag’s thesis. Consider the examples of figurative language we have discussed in class and Sontag’s models of psychological, economic, and military metaphors.  What would Sontag say about the language used to discuss

your illness? How does metaphor shape cultural attitudes about the illness, disease, or syndrome? Why does she urge us to purify ourselves from metaphors?

Recommendations:

•    In contrast to what we discussed in class, I’m going to widen the parameters a bit and allow you to research “disorders.”  This means that autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit disorder, and a long list of other similarly classified behaviors are possible topics.  That said, proceed with caution since it might require a bit of extra work.  You will need to spend an adequate amount of time explaining and discussing what Sontag would think about the term “disorder” and how it works with her theory.

•    Genetic diseases that are traceable to a genetic mutation or genetic “defect” of some kind don’t quite fit the model of a disease with an unknown cause or multiple causes. Still, Sontag would likely ask us to question the language of genetics. What would Sontag say about using the term genetic “defect?” What does she say about “mutation?” If you were to pick a genetic disease, you would

need to extend Sontag’s argument to genetics which I think is possible, but like choosing “disorders”

it really depends on the following:

1. What is debatable about these diseases? What does it mean to say either of them can be attributed to genetics?

2. Are they researchable?  You don’t need a lot of sources for this essay but you don’t want to get stuck with only two or three to choose from because the illness, disease, syndrome, or disorder, you have chosen is rare.

If you are not choosing a disease from the list I have provided below, please check with me about your topic before you proceed.

Requirements:

•      No straw man (woman) or ad hominem (against the woman) fallacies.  Remember that Sontag is writing in 1978. Don’t attempt to complicate her argument by using medical advances or knowledge that she could not have possibly known about. Don’t direct a counterargument against her. Instead, stick to her theory and text.

•         You need to apply Sontag’s method and demonstrate that you understand her points before you disagree with her theory.  Then, you can consider a potential counterargument.

•         3-5 different sources in addition to Sontag’s text. It’s the variety of sources that is important.  As we have discussed in class, reliable websites for definitions of diseases that rely primarily on scientific, medical terms can be found at the websites below.

National Institutes of Health http://www.nih.gov/ Center for Disease Control  http://www.cdc.gov/

Databases such as PubMed and MEDLINE are good, but expect to see some figurative language. These databases can be accessed through the Butler library.

Try Google Scholar for a variety of texts about your disease or illness.  Most of the time, your search will yield scholarly articles with difficult specialized language, but occasionally, other types of documents turn up as well.

Websites for the national organization or foundations about your illness or disease

Patient /Support Group websites

The final draft of this assignment should be 3-5 pages long in MLA format and conform to the writing guidelines explained under Essays & Research Paper of the FYS syllabus.

Here is a list of diseases, illnesses, syndromes, disorders with unknown causes or multiple causes. This is by no means exhaustive.  I’m happy to approve a different disease provided it meets the criteria:

Alzheimer’s                                               Lupus                                      Tourette’s Syndrome

Fibromyalgia                                             Type I Diabetes Chronic Fatigue Syndrome                       Erythromelalgia Endometriosis                                           Sjogren’s Syndrome

Irritable Bowel Syndrome                         Reflex Sympathy Dystrophy/Complex Regional Pain Syndrome

Crohn’s Disease                                       Polyarteritis nodosa

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)      Münchausen Syndrome

Meniere’s Disease                                    Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

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No recollection of her wedding day. No recollection of her first day of high school, of moving into college as a freshman, of all her mistakes, accomplishments, and more. As she looks around  the room full of her closest  family members,  her two daughters, her son, husband, her brother, and her sister-in-law, she squints with a confused, yet absent  look. When one stares at her eyes, they would describe  them as being empty, as if she is physically  but not mentally  there, off in some distant  land searching  and hying to bring back all she had lost. When I think of Ah;heimer’s, I think of such a person. I think of my friend’s grandmother, unable to identify  the family  members she’s cared for for 60 years, unable  to do such simple  things as shower herself.

I think of people in movies and their families, feeling  like they’ve completely lost the person with the disease, feeling utterly devastated, feeling as if they’d rather have a death sentence than Alzheimer’ s. At least that way, they will have died with their dignity. The language  used to discuss Alzheimer’s disease,  specifically the military, economic, and psychological  metaphors, supports Sontag’s claim  because it leads people to fear time, to believe they’ll become disconnected and lose their identity, and to think that they’re a burden if they acquire

Alzheimer’ s disease. It leads people to instinctually think ofloss. confusion. helplessness. It leads people to think that they ‘d rather die immediately than lose all of their memories because that would mean losing  their identity.  Not being able to care for oneself,  not being able to

remember eve1ything that made them who they were, is incomprehensible and utterly devastating to think about because of the figurative language that accompanies Alzheimer’s.

The metaphors lead people to fear the passing of time, and becoming older. Alzheimer’s is always described with the psychological metaphor that it is a progressive decline or a deterioration. According to an Alzheimer’s foundation website, “Alzheimer’s worsens over time” (“Alzheimer’s”). The NIH website describes Alzheimer’s as “an irreversible, progressive brain disease” (“About”). Both quotes point out the correlation behveen time and the level of

severity of the disease. The disease isn’t described as stagnant, improving, or recove1ing. Instead, it is described as unalterable, permanent, and deteriorating, because of the heavy words such as “worsens,” and “in·eversiblc” used to describe it. Its “Symptoms usually develop slowly and get worse over time, becoming severe”(“Alzheimer’s”). Through the word “develop,” that description points out how the passing of time will lead to worse symptoms, and a worsening condition. And because it describes how the passing of time will make symptoms more “severe,” the fear of time is relatedly more severe. Furthermore, it is described to COITelate with age, and have an increasing risk as one ages. It’s stated that “Alzheimer’s is not a normal part of aging, although the greatest known risk factor is increasing age, and the majority of people with Alzheimer’s are 65 and older” (“About”). That leads people to fear becoming older, because they fear obtaining the disease and they’re at greater risk of obtaining it as they get older. As a result, people feel like they’re deteriorating over time and will progressively decline with the disease. They feel like once they have the disease, time is the enemy and will only make them worse.

They feel like once they have the disease, there’s no way to overturn it or recover from it.

The metaphors lead people to believe they’ll become disconnected from loved ones, society, deeper thinking and emotion, and lose their identity. Alzheimer’s is explained with the

psychological metaphor of a diW  1ection

speculate and propose that disconnection is also the cause. In addition, the metaphor of confusion and loss contribute to leading people to believe that they’re losing their identity. The NIH

website explained that “Plaques and tangles in the brain are two of the main features of Alzheimer’s disease. The third is the loss of connections between nerve cells (neurons) in the brain” (“About”). The phrase “plaques and tangles” signifies chaos and confusion within the brain, since everything isn’t orderly and everything is muddled up.The phrase “loss of connections” implies that those parts of the brain are losing connections to each other, and consequently, function. Similarly, the CDC website explained that “The plaques and tangles can lead to a gradual loss of connections between brain cells and eventually cell death” (“Dementia”). Because of the metaphors explaining Alzheimer ‘s as a disease of disorder, confusion, and loss of connection within the brain, people get the idea that their lives, once they acquire Alzheimer ‘s, will retlect the chaos and confusion, and the loss of connection within their brains. They feel like they too will live in a state of confusion, in which they won ‘t know what’s going on, how to feel, how to act, and such. They feel like they too won’t be able to connect to

their friends, family, and society, and like what happens when parts of the brain lose connection

with each other, they feel like they’ll lose their ability to function or know how to function. Since they’re living in a state of disorder, confusion, and disconnection, they feel they’ll lose who they

are and what makes them individuals.

The metaphors lead people to think that they’re a burden to people around them and to society. The military metaphor that labels Alzheimer’s as an enemy, as a destmctive force, leads people to believe so. Alzheimer’s is labeled as “destroying memoty and thinking skills and, eventually even the ability to catry out the simplest tasks of daily living” (“About”). It is stated

that “mortality rates for Alzheimer’s disease are on the rise, unlike hemt disease and cancer death rates which are continuing to decline” (“Dementia”). Because Alzheimer’s destroys such, it implies that other people must take care of the person with the disease and that that person

cannot survive without the care and help of others. Also, since it has very high mortality rates,

those descriptions imply that more care is needed than other diseases, and that it is an emotional burden to loved ones knowing the mo1tality rates and the likelihood that they will die from the disease. Moreover, the economic metaphor that labels Alzheimer’s as a financial burden leads people to believe so. All of the websites mentioned the cost of the disease, and implies that it is costly for the people around the person who has Alzheimer’s disease. The CDC website, for example, poses the question “What is the burden of Alzheimer’s disease in the United States?” (“Dementia) and answers the question with “The average per person Medicare payments for those with Alzheimer’s and other dementias are three times higher than for those without these conditions. Medicaid spendi ng for older adults with Alzheimer ‘s disease and other dementias is nine times higher”(“Dementia) and by mentioning “Alzheimer’s disease is one of the top ten leading causes of death in the United States. Alzheimer ‘s disease is the 6th leading cause of death among American adults, and the 5th leading cause of death for adults aged 65 years and older” (“Dementia). Because the CDC website used the word “burden” on the United States, it

implies that people with Alzheimer’s are an economic burden not only to the people immediately close to them or around them, but to the nation as a whole as well. And because mortality rates are so high, it implies that they are an emotional and mental burden to people around them as well, because people around them have to mentally deal with their actual or potential death. Therefore, these metaphors lead people to think dtat Alzheimer’s disease will make them a physical, mental, and economic burden to others.

remove quotes and put in italics. books go in italics in MLA

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Good!