Volume 25, Number 2 · February 23, 1978
Disease as Political Metaphor
By Susan Sontag
Punitive notions of disease have a long history, and such notions are particularly active with cancer. There is the 'fight' or 'crusade' against cancer; cancer is the 'killer' disease; people who have cancer are 'cancer victims.' Ostensibly, the illness is the culprit. But it is also the cancer patient who is made culpable. Widely believed psychological theories of disease assign to the ill the ultimate responsibility both for falling ill and for getting well. And conventions of treating cancer as no mere disease but a demonic enemy make cancer not just a lethal disease but a shameful one.
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