In fact, the idea of autoimmunity as the expression of a conflicted self could be said to serve a purpose that reinforces the societal status quo more than it elucidates biology. First, it gives the patients a story they can focus on and attempt to exert control over. It gives biographical meaning to the disease that otherwise is being described in clinical terms in fifteen-minute appointments by a physician with whom, most likely, the patient has almost no relationship. Instead, the patients tell themselves a story that, painful though it might be, offers them a modicum of control—and the
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