Sontag wrote Illness as Metaphor in 1978, while suffering from breast cancer herself. In her study she reveals that the metaphors and myths surrounding certain illnesses, especially cancer, add greatly to the suffering of the patients and often inhibit them from seeking proper treatment. By demystifying the fantasies surrounding cancer, Sontag shows cancer for what it is - a disease; not a curse, not a punishment, certainly not an embarrassment, and highly curable, if good treatment is found early enough. Almost a decade later, with the outbreak of a new, stigmatized disease replete with mystifications and punitive metaphors, Sontag wrote Aids and Its Metaphors, extending the argument of the earlier book to the AIDS pandemic.
- ISBN10 0385267053
- ISBN13 9780385267052
- Publish Date 1 January 1990
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group
- Edition Anchor Books ed
- Format Paperback
- Pages 183
- Language English