1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910825460203321

Autore

Furst Lilian R

Titolo

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

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Albany, : State University of New York Press, c2003

ISBN

0-7914-8759-8

1-4175-2021-3

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (240 p.)

Disciplina

616.08

Soggetti

Medicine, Psychosomatic

Literature and mental illness

Imagination in literature

Diseases in literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

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

Nota di contenuto

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

Sommario/riassunto

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.