Eros Illness and Louise Bourgeois. Cell: You Better Grow Up. 1993. Detail. Installation. © The Easton Foundation. Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Eros and Illness David B. Morris Cambridge, Mas sa chu setts London, Eng land 2017 Copyright © 2017 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of Amer i ca First printing Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Morris, David B., author. Title: Eros and illness / David B. Morris. Description: Cambridge, Mas sa chu setts : Harvard University Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016038760 | ISBN 9780674659711 (cloth) Subjects: LCSH: Sick— Psy chol ogy. | Medicine and psy chol ogy. | Desire (Philosophy) | Personalized medicine. Classification: LCC R726.5 .M666 2017 | DDC 610— dc23 LC rec ord available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2016038760 For Ruth Contents Introduction What Is Eros? 1 PART ONE The Contraries 19 Chapter 1 The Ambush: An Erotics of Illness 21 Chapter 2 Unforgetting Asklepios: Medical Eros and Its Lineage 49 Chapter 3 Not- Knowing: Medicine in the Dark 79 PART TWO The Stories 105 Chapter 4 Va ri e ties of Erotic Experience: Five Illness Narratives 107 Chapter 5 Eros Modigliani: Assenting to Life 135 Chapter 6 The Infinite Faces of Pain: Eros and Ethics 162 PART THREE The Dilemmas 191 Chapter 7 Black Swan Syndrome: Probable Improbabilities 193 Chapter 8 Light as Environment: How Not to Love Nature 220 Chapter 9 The Spark of Life: Appearances / Disappearances 249 Conclusion Altered States 279 Notes 303 Acknowl edgments 335 Index 337 Eros Illness and