Undergrad Institution and Major:
Wesleyan University, History
Interest Areas: The modern healthcare system has made tremendous strides in combating infectious disease. Yet chronic illness across all age groups remains an unmet challenge. Why? In my work, I have been exploring an argument that the problem might be rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding. Whereas our healthcare system tends to assume that illness is caused by a physical malfunction, there is evidence to suggest that many forms of chronic suffering are partly or wholly psychological in origin. Biomedicine, it appears, might be unable to make sense of this evidence because it lacks the concepts needed to think about human subjectivity as a causal force. It could be argued, then, that we have reached an impasse when it comes to chronic illness. A second component of my work explores the origins of this impasse. I suggest that the problem can ultimately be traced to a broader tendency to rely on Cartesian assumptions in conceptualizing collective problems and action. By clarifying and problematizing these assumptions we might find ourselves better able to notice and pursue alternatives – in health and other domains relevant to the public good.