The neurological patient in history / edited by L. Stephen Jacyna and Stephen T. Casper.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Jacyna, L. S.

Casper, Stephen T.

Series:

Rochester studies in medical history

Rochester studies in medical history, 1526-2715

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nervous system--Diseases--History.

Nervous system.

Nervous System Diseases--history.

Patients--history.

History, 19th Century.

History, 20th Century.

Neurology--history.

Nervous system--Diseases.

History.

Medical Subjects:

Nervous System Diseases--history.

Patients--history.

History, 19th Century.

History, 20th Century.

Neurology--history.

Physical Description:

viii, 264 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Rochester, NY : University of Rochester Press, 2012.

Summary:

Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Tourette's, multiple sclerosis, stroke: all are neurological illnesses that create dysfunction, distress, and disability. With their symptoms ranging from impaired movement and paralysis to hallucinations and dementia, neurological patients present myriad puzzling disorders and medical challenges.

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries countless stories about neurological patients appeared in newspapers, books, medical papers, and films. Often the patients were romanticized; indeed, it was common for physicians to cast neurological patients in a grand performance, allegedly giving audiences access to deep philosophical insights about the meaning of life and being.

Beyond these romanticized images, however, the neurological patient was difficult to diagnose. Experiments often approached unethical realms, and treatment created challenges for patients, courts, caregivers, and even for patient advocacy organizations.

In this kaleidoscopic study, the contributors illustrate how the neurological patient was constructed in history and came to occupy its role in Western culture. Book jacket.

Contents:

The patient's pitch : the neurologist, the tuning fork, and textbook knowledge / Stephen T. Casper

Neurological patients as experimental subjects : epilepsy studies in the United States / Ellen Dwyer

Speaking for yourself : the medico-legal aspects of aphasia in nineteenth-century Britain / Marjorie Perlman Lorch

The spouse, the neurological patient, and doctors / Katrina Gatley

Disappearing in plain sight : public roles of people with dementia in the meaning and politics of Alzheimer's disease / Jesse F. Ballenger

The cursing patient : neuropsychiatry confronts Tourette's syndrome, 1825-2008 / Howard I. Kushner

The psychasthenic poet : Robert Nichols and his neurologists / L. Stephen Jacyna

The encephalitis lethargica patient as a window on the soul / Paul Foley

Neuropatients in historyland / Roger Cooter

The neurological patient in history : a commentary / Max Stadler.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781580464123

1580464122

OCLC:

742510422