The Nature of Maladies

Abstract

Medical students are given the impression that patients are affected by a disease. And a disease is thought to have an independent reality. As Pickering (1962) says¹ ‘We have grown accustomed to defining a disease, and ultimately to ascribing it, to a unique and specific fault with a unique and specific cause’. Although we all realize how difficult it can be to reach a diagnosis, we may still take it for granted that, if only we were more knowledgeable and more clever, we could still attach some neat diagnostic label to every patient. When faced by a patient who has defied all the efforts of mortal man, we may perhaps assume that the Almighty would know which particular disease was responsible for the illness.