Description:

Annalese Duprey-Henry
Doctoral Student, English Department
Graduate Affiliate, MH&B Program
Northwestern University

The Violence of Illness and the Compassionate Physician: Emotional Roles in Medicine

Wasting illnesses—from medieval lovesickness to cancer to AIDS—evoke a particular sort of horror as the body is slowly consumed. Descriptions of these illnesses often feature metaphors of attack as well as consumption: the violent illness overcomes the strength of the patient to fend off its attacker. The unique vulnerability of the body and the miasma of contagion, as well as the duration of attack, create the circumstances for a peculiar type of intimacy between the patient and his or her attendants. This talk will examine the emotional roles forged by ravaging illnesses with an emphasis on the compassion evoked in the caretaker, and its potential for intimacy.