Illness

疾病

Overthink

2026-02-03

56 分钟
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What does it mean to be ill? In episode 159 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss illness. They explore how illness has been mythologized, how it may alienate us from our bodies, and how it impacts social relationships. Is science the solution to the mythologization of illness, or is the scientific model of illness its own form of mythology? How should we conceptualize illness? Is it as a “deviation” from a norm? And if so, what norm? Finally, what can we learn about illness from a phenomenological approach that centers the patient’s first-person experience? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts think about the distinction between the mental and the physical in connection to illness and the intersection between mind and body in illness.  Works Discussed: Georges Canguilhem, The Normal and the Pathological Havi Carel, Illness:  The Cry of the Flesh, Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor SK Toombs, The Meaning of Illness: A Phenomenological Account of the Different Perspectives of Physician and Patient Enjoy our work? Support Overthink via tax-deductible donation: https://www.givecampus.com/fj0w3v Join our Substack for ad-free versions of both audio and video episodes, extended episodes, exclusive live chats, and more: https://overthinkpod.substack.com/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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  • Welcome to Overthink.

  • The podcast where two philosophers connect philosophy to your lived experience.

  • I'm Ellie Anderson.

  • And I'm David Peña Guzman.

  • David, everybody gets ill.

  • I myself, I'm just getting over a recent cold.

  • You might even still be able to hear it in my voice.

  • It always sounds better after I'm just getting over a cold,

  • you know, like you got that sort of cool lower register going on.

  • And obviously, although that's a very minor illness, Many of us,

  • including myself, have dealt with more serious illnesses over the course of our lives,

  • even those of us, also like myself,

  • who haven't dealt with extremely serious or chronic illness, at least as of this point.

  • So there's a bit of a strange thing going on when we think about how our society treats illness.

  • Because even though all of us get sick, it seems like illness is a kind of dirty little secret.

  • in our society, something we don't like to talk about.

  • And this is especially the case when it comes to chronic or serious illness.

  • The philosopher Javi Carell,

  • whose work we're going to be talking about in detail over the course of the episode today,

  • makes this point in the beginning of her book, aptly titled, Illness.