Hubris is traditional defined as a man (or woman) acting as if they are the equal of the gods. This flavor of hubris has a tendency to piss off the gods, who know that humans are not the equals of the gods. The practitioner of the hubris also tends to come in for some serious smiting as a gentle reminder of their sub-god status. My favorite example is Bellerophon. the mythical Greek hero who slew the Chimera on his winged-steed Pegasus and then tried to ascend to the peak of Mount Olympus (gods-only private club) on said winged-beasty. To prevent such a transgression, he was smote by Zeus and brought into dramatic compliance with the law of gravity.

Here's a modern look at hubris, since a pantheon of gods is so BCE. Suzanne Somers nearly killed herself. She didn't know she was killing herself and still probably does not know. The details are a little sketchy, since she is the one telling the story, but here is what can be put together with some reasonable inferences. Suzanne was feeling icky. Hospitalized awful. Screening found spots that could be cancer or a fungal infection. Because such fungal infections almost never occur in people with functioning immune systems, cancer would have been the first diagnostic guess. Except that Somers was regularly using corticosteroids, an immune suppressant, as part of her strongly endorsed bioidentical hormone therapy. Fortunately, for her (jury is still out on the for us), her doctors discovered this fact, switched diagnoses, and successfully treated her fungal infection.

In summary, Somers regularly treats herself with corticosteroids suppressing her immune system and allowing her to catch a widespread fungal infection that nearly kills her if not for treatment by modern medicine. You can read the full description in her own words here.

So far, we are only looking at stupidity. It's not even hubristic to excoriate the doctors that may have saved your life for being jerks. No, hubris is not only writing a book giving medical advice to others after this nearly killing herself by following her own advice, but you can read the story of her unintentional and unacknowledged effort to kill herself in the very book in which she provides that medical advice.

Somers may like to think of herself as a tragic hero like Bellerophon fighting the Chimera of cancer and bravely challenging the hegemony of the Olympian oligarchs[1] of "Western Medicine". Unfortunately, Somers is more of a Hamlet[2], in the sense that being associated with Hamlet was a great way to end up dead.

Suzanne Somers, for your hubris and inflicting Step By Step on the world, we are pleased to welcome you to The Festival of Idiots.

NOTES
1: My personal favorite way of thinking of the Bellerophon story - the capable and deserving little guy being smacked down by the powerful elite jealously guarding their unearned position.
2: In the off-chance that an English lit major actually reads Scientific Blogging, I do know that Hamlet's tragic flaw was his dithering, not hubris.

*Hat tip to Orac at Respectful Insolence. Orac actually bothered to read Somers' book sparing me the effort of extracting her story and providing medically competent analysis, which I cannot do.