The Alchemy of Illness [Paperback]

Kat Duff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 21, 2000

Illness is a universal experience. There is no privilege that can make us immune to its touch. We are taught to assume health, illnesses being just temporary breakdowns in the well-oiled machinery of the body. But illness has its own geography, its own laws and commandments. At a time when the attention of the whole nation is focused on health care, Kat Duff inquires into the nature and function of illness itself. Duff, a counselor in private practice in Taos, New Mexico, wrote this book out of her experience with chronic fatigue syndrome, but what she has to say is applicable to every illness and every one of us.

For those who are sick, this book offers solace and recognition. For those who care for them either physically or emotionally, it offers inspiration and compassion. Finally, this fresh perspective on healing reveals how every illness is a crucible that tries our mettle, tests our limits, and provides us with an unparalleled opportunity to integrate its lessons into our lives.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Drawing on her own experience with CFIDS (chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome), the author of this collection of eight essays explores the mystery of human pain. "Illness is a familiar yet foreign landscape," she writes. "It remains a wilderness . . . despite its continuing presence in our lives." Duff spent "the better part of two years" in bed; during her sickness she read widely and voluminously, pursuing "the meaning and purposes of illness." Bringing together insights from psychology, religion and anthropology, and explicating the words of shamans and philosophers from many cultures, Duff tracks the universality of illness and the curious contradictions--the sense of freedom, for example--that emerge in its midst. Her own healing, achieved through "tedious, tenuous and life-giving labor," is a model of hope. Duff is a counselor in northern New Mexico.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Library of Congress-assigned subject headings ("Sick-psychology" and "Chronic fatigue syndrome-psychological aspects") suggest the gist of this book, which was written by "a white woman of sufficient means and mystical temperament nearing forty in twentieth century America" and unfortunately stricken with chronic Epstein-Barr virus, the yuppie flu. However, the LC listings fail to bring out the parapsychological aspects--the "alchemy" of the title--that are a major part of the story. Duff writes, "For the only way I can evoke and describe this ultimately ineffable dark heart of the universe, that black hole that opens up in illness, and begin to address the question of healing that rises from its center, is through storytelling: the telling of my dreams, the stories of goddesses, my experience and those of other sick people." Duff proceeds to recount her dreams. A shaman tells her that she was "a sacrifice dying so that others may live... we would not call you sick, but wounded." This reader just doesn't get it. For "Sick-psychology," Arthur Frank's At the Will of the Body ( LJ 3/15/91) and Norman Cousins's Anatomy of an Illness (LJ 9/1/79) are better titles.
- James Swanton, Albert Einstein Coll. of Medicine, New York
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press (November 21, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0609899430
• ISBN-13: 978-0609899434
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #324,345 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How wonderful to find someone who knows exactly how I feel, December 8, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Alchemy of Illness (Paperback)

I started this book and was instantly caught up in the feeling-"She knows me, how is this possible?" The book is written with almost a poet's viewpoint of illness, but there is such love and comfort in it. Most of all, Kat knows what it feels like to hope and pray that "perhaps it was just for one time and it won't happen again". I know that this is what I think, everytime I am hit with another "flare" of fibromyalgia. I always think that perhaps this will be the last one. She also allows herself to finally give in to the feeling of chronic illness, to sink into the dark place; something that is so difficult to do! I felt as if I had written so much of it, myself, as she writes of "trying to get as much done as possible" on days when the illness is in remission--fully aware that a payment will be due, for overdoing. I do not agree with some of her "new age" philosophy aproaches, but it works for her and everyone must find his or her own way. I too, know what it feels like to feel the beginning of "it" coming on and refusing to admit what is happening and as" it" progresses, to finally just allow" it" to have it's way and sink into this void that is chronic illness. Kat also makes a wonderful point of stating that only people with an illness can truly appreciate "good health", as we never take a day for granted, when we feel wonderful. It is not the" norm", so therefore, it is so much more special. Obviously, healthy people never know what a gift, they have been handed. I also agree that when one is hit by a chronic illness, it allows us to stop and be quiet, to be able to reflect on life, our inner self and the beauty of God's nature, that perhaps we would not have bothered to do, if we had been able to keep on going at a breakneck pace. Therefore, there is some comfort in illness, that perhaps healthy people don't experience. I think this book is a "must read" for anyone with a chronic illness, as it gives permission to be ill, without having to constantly feel obliged to make excuses for all of the "whys" we must give, for broken vacations, visits and the necessity of changing the way we live--even when others don't understand --because, of course--"You don't look like you are ill" is heard so often by people with chronic illnesses.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A magnificently moving diary of one woman's chronic illness., September 9, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Alchemy of Illness (Paperback)

This is a beautifully written book in which Kat Duff tells of her physical and emotional battle with chronic fatique syndrome. It is also an analysis of the historical and social positions of chronic and debilatating illness in western society. Duff has both emotional and intellectual depth; her text includes references to works by Virginia Woolf, Deepak Chopra, Oliver Sacks, Albert Kreinheder, John Donne, Audre Lorde, Carl Jung, Alice James, Susan Griffin, Susan Sontag, and many others. It is a beautiful example of the integration of mind-body.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Oh, yes, I remember this place", December 16, 1999

By 

Pamela Byrd (United States of America) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alchemy of Illness (Paperback)

"Oh, yes, I remember this place" (a quote from the book) are words that I think of whenever I begin to feel the twinge of illness settling in to my life. Kat Duff is an excellent author and wrote a captivating and well-researched book. There are too few books written about something so common as illness and this is the best I have read. I keep this book by my nightstand and break it out whenever I feel illness approaching.