When the Body Says No

by Gabor Maté

Hawking’s vocation and the unstinting support of his wife were accompanied by something else that has probably aided his survival: the liberation of his aggression by his illness. The “niceness” of most ALS patients represents more than the innate goodness and sweetness of some human beings; it is an emotion in extremis. It is magnified out of healthy proportion by a powerful suppression of assertiveness. Assertiveness in defence of our boundaries can and should appear aggressive, if need be. Hawking’s intellectual self-assuredness became the ground for that aggression to manifest itself, particularly after the onset of his physical decline. Jane Hawking notes in her memoir that “curiously, as his gait became more unsteady so his opinions became more forceful and defiant.”