Idioms of distress : psychosomatic disorders in medical and imaginative literature / Lilian R. Furst.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Furst, Lilian R.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Medicine, Psychosomatic.

Literature and mental illness.

Imagination in literature.

Diseases in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (240 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, c2003.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This interdisciplinary study examines the enigmatic category of psychosomatic disorders as articulated in medical writings and represented in literary works of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Six key works are analyzed: Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Émile Zola's Thérèse Raquin, Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks, Arthur Miller's Broken Glass, Brian O'Doherty's The Strange Case of Mademoiselle P., and Pat Barker's Regeneration. Each is a case study in detection as the hidden sources of bodily ills are uncovered in intra- or interpersonal conflicts such as guilt, family tensions, and marital discord. The book fosters a better understanding of these puzzling disorders by revealing how they function simultaneously as masks and as manifestations of inner suffering.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Preface

Hiding and Seeking Distress

Speaking through the Body

Swings of the Historical Pendulum

The Mysterious Leap

Literary Patients

Metaphors of Distress

“A Strange Sympathy betwixt Soul and Body”

Nerves: At the Interstices of Physiology and Psychology

“A Sick Spot on the Body of the Family”

“Legs Turned to Butter”

Substance and Shadow

Shell Shock

Outing the Distress

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 211-220) and index.

ISBN:

9780791487594

0791487598

9781417520213

1417520213

OCLC:

61367663