Illness Susan Sontag argued, not unlike Michel Foucault, that contemporary ways of approaching and understanding illness are intricately linked to societal norms. Huston Smith in Beyond the Postmodern Mind also contends that current views about illness are culture-bound. Other cultures, particularly in different historical periods, would probably regard some of contemporary, so-called developed normality (i.e. our current beliefs, ideas and practices) as abnormal. This kind of argument is often used in relation to mental illness but Sontag (and Foucault) point out that it may also apply to physical illness. As with mental illness, bias with physical illness is evident in the way it is construed—i.e. its apparent causes, what an illness apparently signifies about a sick person’s character, and how best to treat it. » Aesculapius, Athleticism, Castanada (Carlos), Demons, DSM-IV-TR, Evil, Francis of Assisi (St.), Homeopathy, Jung (Carl Gustav), Koestler (Arthur), Laing (R. D.), Madness, Medicine Wheel, Occam’s razor, Shaman, Soul Loss, Spiritual Attack, Suicide, Szasz (Thomas), Venial Sin
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