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“The alchemists insisted that two things must happen before the cure can be extracted from the disease. The problem must be kept in a closed container, and it must be reduced to its original state through a process of breakdown. The limitations and immobility of illness provide the closed container that enables this transformation, precisely because there is no way out...Alice James called herself “bottled lightning…a geyser of emotions, sensations, speculations, and reflections fermenting…in my poor old carcass” when she was dying of cancer. The isolation and lack of sympathy or understanding that sick people often endure may even be necessary to secure the walls of the container, so that nothing is spilled out or shared and the matter inside will reach the point of transmutation. The walled space of illness, like therapy, intensifies the brooding and incubates the egg.” - Kat Duff, The Alchemy of Illness