Just read this book last weekend and rather enjoyed it. Reading it I found this quote which I suspect is true for a lot of things in life, not only cancer (I’m thinking of of organisations and products here rather than people). I’m going to archive this is my mind (and here) as a potential metaphor to be remembered (it’s attributed to Sigmund Freud in the book): “In science, my dear, there is no such thing as good or evil. The death instinct is part of our biology. You’re familiar with chromatolysis - the natural process by which cells die? “Every one of our cells brings about its own destruction at its allotted time. That’s the death instinct in operation.  “Now if a cell fails to die, what happens? It keeps dividing, reproducing, endlessly, unnaturally. It becomes a cancer. That’s what cancer is, after all - cells afflicted with the loss of their will to die. The death instinct is not evil, Miss Rosseau. It its proper place it’s every bit as essential to our well-being as its opposite.” 

Just read this book last weekend and rather enjoyed it.

Reading it I found this quote which I suspect is true for a lot of things in life, not only cancer (I’m thinking of of organisations and products here rather than people). I’m going to archive this is my mind (and here) as a potential metaphor to be remembered (it’s attributed to Sigmund Freud in the book):

“In science, my dear, there is no such thing as good or evil. The death instinct is part of our biology. You’re familiar with chromatolysis - the natural process by which cells die?

“Every one of our cells brings about its own destruction at its allotted time. That’s the death instinct in operation. 

“Now if a cell fails to die, what happens? It keeps dividing, reproducing, endlessly, unnaturally. It becomes a cancer. That’s what cancer is, after all - cells afflicted with the loss of their will to die. The death instinct is not evil, Miss Rosseau. It its proper place it’s every bit as essential to our well-being as its opposite.”