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Commentary: Being Their Worst Nightmare: On David Perusek's “Cancer, Culture, and Individual Experience”
Author(s) -
Frank Arthur W.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
ethos
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.783
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1548-1352
pISSN - 0091-2131
DOI - 10.1111/j.1548-1352.2012.01273.x
Subject(s) - nightmare , argument (complex analysis) , battle , meaning (existential) , psychoanalysis , distressing , psychology , sociology , aesthetics , epistemology , philosophy , medicine , history , psychotherapist , art , archaeology , visual arts
My comment describes what has remained the same and what differs between David Perusek's report of recent cancer and my experiences in the 1980s. Pink‐ribbon culture, with its benefits and dangers, is new, but the obtuse things people say are remarkably constant. I discuss why I have become more sympathetic to people's difficulty responding to those who have cancer, and why I have come to accept the troublesome word survivor . I extend Perusek's argument to issues of life after cancer treatment ends, and I affirm his rejection of “battle” metaphors. Finally, I discuss people's responses to cancer as an instance of generalized reliance on recipes as ways of dealing with what is uncertain. I argue that a distortion of the meaning of hope is part of the fate of our times.