The Alchemy of Illness

by Kat Duff

Illness is a universal experience. There is no privilege that can make us immune to its touch. We are taught to assume health, and to view illnesses as a 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 inquiries 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 caretakers, 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 lesson into our lives.

“ The Alchemy of Illness is pure heart-talk, a path back to the soul, an honoring of all that we are. Kat Duff is a very wise woman, and her incandescent book is sheer poetry.” –Larry Dossey, M.D.

“Illness becomes numinous in Kat Duff’s strong telling. With words etched in pain and beauty she carries us into a passion play as potent as it is strangely healing. Quite simply, this is a masterpiece.” –Jean Houston

“A lovely book, beautifully written, full of insight, and an excellent correction of our society’s usual soulless way of dealing with illness. If medical schools would listen to the message, we’d have a revolution in health care.” –Thomas Moore

Genres: Health, Nonfiction, Disability, Memoir, Spirituality, Psychology, Illness

176 pages, Paperback

First published March 2, 1993

About the author

Kat Duff is author of "The Alchemy of Illness" and the forthcoming "The Secret Life of Sleep." She lives in northern New Mexico, and works as a counselor and child forensic interviewer. Duff has been a fan of the essay form ever since reading Joan Didion's "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" in high school.

Reviews

[Maia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not an easy read. A series of essays about illness and health and how our model of Western Medicine strips us of the spiritual and character developing benefits of illness. Illness is considered something to be conquered and those of us with chronic illness (such as the author and myself) are sometimes judged as failures because we cannot or will not conquer our illnesses.

[Alie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book did for me what years of therapy, friends, doctor visits did. It showed me how to accept that I was ill and then how to move on to the next thing. It is amazing.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written and very thought-provoking. This book offers a whole new way to look at illness and health, and reading it can result in a real paradigm shift. I recommend it to anyone - sick, healthy, or anywhere in between.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

There was something so very comforting about reading this book. Kat Duff is very good at explaining the feeling of descending into the underworld that comes with ongoing illness, and the topsy-turvy way the world sometimes feels in comparison. She gives a new way of seeing the experience of illness and ennobling it. It is why she can say at the end of the book that she hopes she does not forget what she has learned while being in that world.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'll admit I'm probably not in a good space to read this right now. Perhaps I should try again later. But when you try to go all Critical Theory on illness, both acute and chronic, and lament that Western medicine colonizes the body and fails to reify the spiritual dimensions of illness? Furthermore it prizes healing over suffering? Shut up. Just shut up.

[Elizabeth Good · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author does what few others have done....goes into the underbelly of chronic illness and explores it as an expression of what may be unresolved or imbalanced in the culture. It is an affirming, poetic book, helpful to the soul if not necessarily to an ailing body.

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Aunt sent me this and I'm glad she did. It's not anything I would look twice at on a shelf but it gives you a very different outlook on illness (and life in general). Very glad I read this book.

[Alison S ☯️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a hard one to rate! I came across this book as it was referenced by Sharon Blackie in If Women Rose Rooted. I thought it sounded right up my street, as I like reading the stories of people with health challenges, especially since I've been struggling with a chronic health condition myself in the last few years. The author uses very poetic language, and has some great insights into some of the experiences and purposes of illness and healing. The chapter called "Toxic health" which was about cultural norms around illness and health - including ableism and the limitations of Western medicine - was worth the purchase price alone. However there were also several chapters that were a bit too "deep" and woo-woo for me, and that I found hard to engage with e.g the ones referencing Alchemy, myths and shamanism. I rushed through the last two chapters as, by that stage, I just wanted to finish it and be able to read something else.

[Trudy Jaskela · Rating 4 out of 5]

According to Duff, as much as illness resembles a hostile takeover, possession cannot occur unless the body and soul allows it. The book is about the author's transformation after he is diagnosed with a chronic life-altering illness.
She discusses the fear, loathing, confusion, haunting questions, helpful and hurtful comments of friends, and the unexpected revelations that come when bodies misbehave. Most of us are ill equipped to face illness. A lifetime of ease and full activity, assisted by periosdic drugs and surery, have taught us to assumed health.
Every culture, and she explores the western medical culture, shamanism, Chinese medicine in quite a bit of detail.

[Hanna-Maria Rydberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the most important book I have ever read.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic. If you're a chronic pain sufferer you will feel seen and heard.

[Emma Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is such a beautiful book. I first read it a few years ago when I first became unwell with severe ME. At the time I was unable to leave the upstairs of my house for almost a year and was too unwell for visitors and human interaction. It was very touching and made me feel seen in a way I wasn’t able to access from anyone in my life (besides one very dear friend who was also disabled and house bound) It also helped me with the acceptance of my disability and imagine a meaningful life even if I was never “cured”

[Hella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ik werd op het spoor van dit boek gezet door het prachtige blog Myth & Moor. Het gaat over hoe het is om langdurig ziek te zijn. Het is een derdehands exemplaar, er staan strepen in in rood en geel. En nu de mijne erbij, in potlood.
Het is een boek dat - zonder het door mij zo gehate pad op te gaan van Positief Denken en wie kanker krijgt heeft negatief gedacht – verbanden legt tussen geestelijke gesteldheid en ziekte.
Kat Duff vergelijkt de ziekte met de ontvoering van Persephone naar de onderwereld. Een zinvolle reis. Niet vrijwillig, niet zelfgekozen, maar wel betekenisvol. Ziekte is niet zozeer het ontsnappen aan de waarheid, maar een poging om de hele waarheid te belichamen. Het lichaam is niet kapot, als een oude auto, maar het is aan het herinneren, als een moeder. "Your body is the place your memory calls home."
Het staat stikvol mooie, wijze beschouwingen over de diepere zin van ziekzijn. Hoe zieken ook dingen dragen om iets in evenwicht te brengen wat uit balans is in de wereld. "We feed the goddesses of the deep, who need us as much as we need them."
Het is een Heldinne's Reisboek.

[Trux · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't finish reading this before I had to return it to the library, but it's on my list to buy.

I'm fascinated by this topic for some reasons that circle around the main focus of this particular book so I'm not sure what other people who have not suffered serious illness would think of it, and I don't (yet) know where the book ends up, but what I read of it and my own reasons for being fascinated with it make me place a high value on it. Especially given how many sick people there are, and how taboo it is to talk about (and especially celebrate) so many elements of experiencing illness.

[Mark Goodman · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible book really looking at our culture's relationship to illness, particularly chronic illness, and attempting to redefine that relationship in beautiful, inspiring and provocative ways. I read this book years ago and it still has impact on me. A really wonderful read.

[Julene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kat Duff had chronic fatigue syndrome, her book reminded me of how this culture expects good health. I don't remember a lot else about it, but appreciated her story.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful and thought provoking look at illness and culture.

[Charlene]

Good.