As part of my latest academic work, on June 24th 2026 I had the honor of presenting virtually at the American Academy of Religion (AAR). My talk was titled “Illness and Spirituality: Private to Public Metaphors and Transfigurations.” I spoke about the many years of research I have conducted into the doctor-patient relationship, and specifically on the question of what actually makes healing work. My argument is that healing – whether it happens in a clinic with the most novel technology or at the hands of a shaman or a curandero in a traditional setting – turns to be most effective when illness is transformed through language and metaphor into something nameable and shared. Private fear becomes an object, which exists as an Arendtian in-between: as something situated outside the sufferer that can now be spoken about and that is placed within a community’s existing world of meaning, and thus confronted and healed collectively. I believe that language in this role does more than communicate – it helps constitute a world, giving people a measure of control over their suffering.
My talk was part of the panel “(Re)Frames of Healing: Meaning-Making, Relational Ethics, and Holistic Anthropologies of Care” and it was sponsored by the AAR’s Religions, Medicines, and Healing Unit.
