The Subjectivity of Suffering

Abstract

A cancer patient, asked how he was doing, reported that his daughter was ill and his wife was about to leave to visit her parents. He explained that he feared getting his daughter’s cold or flu because he felt this would send him to the hospital, since he had a suppressed immune system. He would miss his wife, and he was concerned about how he would take care of himself in her absence. He said he was thinking of these two things, and “getting down,” when he had the thought that it did “no good to worry or feel bad about it.” He then “felt much better.” He added that he “felt lighter.”