Illness as the Demonic II

Illness as the Demonic II

This essay argues against the tendency to conceptualize illness--particularly chronic, mysterious, or treatment-resistant illness--as a form of the demonic. While such framing may offer psychological comfort by providing a coherent narrative for suffering, it carries a profound danger: it relieves us of the responsibility to understand, fight, and ultimately prevent disease. The parallel to historical explanation is instructive. When we invoke the demonic to explain phenomena like Hitler and Nazism, we foreclose the possibility of understanding the social, economic, and psychological conditions that made such horrors possible. By rendering evil supernatural and inexplicable, we abandon the task of prevention. This essay develops the thesis that submission to demonic explanations--whether of illness or of historical atrocity--constitutes a moral and intellectual failure. We must resist such explanations precisely because they feel satisfying; their satisfaction is the measure of our abdication.