Summary

In Chapter Seven, Sontag focuses on the modern, problematic stereotypes surrounding cancer and depression. She argues that depression is seen as similar to melancholy, but without the positive and charming metaphors that were once applied to melancholy – now, only the negative metaphors remain. Sontag also attacks studies from the 1980s that have claimed there is a link between cancer and trauma. She points out that the studies purporting to show a high rate of depression or dissatisfaction among cancer patients before they were diagnosed with the illness did not compare the rate of depression or trauma among cancer patients to the rate among the general population. Without this comparison, these studies do not demonstrate whether the depression rate is higher among people who later develop cancer – as Sontag writes, the experience of trauma and negative emotions is part of “the human condition” (50). She also...