At the beginning lies the children's question of why. Why do we get sick? The idea that people do not simply acquire their illnesses, but that these are always woven into their life stories, meaning that every illness also has psychological dimensions—these reflections run throughout the work of Viktor von Weizsäcker. It is no coincidence that he referred to his medical career as an escape from conventional medicine. "Why Do We Get Sick" is a volume from the medicalHuman series published by Suhrkamp Taschenbuch.