ABSTRACT
Wherever one looks on the globe it appears that human beings want to be edified by their miseries. It is as if the desire to make suffering intelligible and to turn it to some advantage is one of those dignifying peculiarities of our species, like the ability to cook or conjugate verbs or conceive of the idea of justice. Human beings, unlike other living things, want to go to school when they are miserable. They want to make their suffering intelligible, even as it is unwanted, by answering one or more questions about the cause of their distress: What caused this to happen? Why did this happen to me? Am I responsible for this? What can I do about it? What does this imply about my social relationships? What does this suggest about my personal rectitude? In this chapter we explore some of the ways human beings understand suffering and turn suffering to advantage, by blaming themselves for illness, disaster, and distress.
