The Alchemy of Illness »

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.

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. (Mar.)