The Neurological Patient in History (Rochester Studies in Medical History) (Volume 20)

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. Stephen T. Casper is Assistant Professor in Humanities and Social Sciences at Clarkson University. L. Stephen Jacyna is reader in the History of Medicine and Director of the Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London. Essays from noted contributors trace the evolution of the neurological patient's role, treatment, and place in the history of medicine.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 hallucinationsand 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. Stephen T. Casper is Assistant Professor in Humanities and Social Sciences at Clarkson University. L. Stephen Jacyna is reader in the History of Medicine and Director of the Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London. Contents Preface Acknowledgments Introduction • L. Stephen Jacyna and Stephen T. Casper Part One: Medicine Constructs the “Neurological Patient” 1 The Patient’s Pitch: The Neurologist, the Tuning Fork, and Textbook Knowledge • Stephen T. Casper 2 Neurological Patients as Experimental Subjects: Epilepsy Studies in the United States • Ellen Dwyer Part Two: Public and Private Constructions of the “Neurological Patient” 3 Speaking for Yourself: The Medico-Legal Aspects of Aphasia in Nineteenth-Century Britain • Marjorie Perlman Lorch 4 The Spouse, the Neurological Patient, and Doctors • Katrina Gatley Part Three: Patient Groups Construct the “Neurological Patient” 5 Disappearing in Plain Sight: Public Roles of People with Dementia in the Meaning and Politics of Alzheimer’s Disease • Jesse F. Ballenger 6 The Cursing Patient: Neuropsychiatry Confronts Tourette’s Syndrome, 1825–2008 • Howard I. Kushner Part Four: The Patient Constructs the “Neurological Patient” 7 The Psychasthenic Poet: Robert Nichols and His Neurologists • L. Stephen Jacyna 8 The Encephalitis Lethargica Patient as a Window on the Soul • Paul Foley Part Five: Historians Construct the “Neurological Patient” 9 Neuropatients in Historyland • Roger Cooter 10 The Neurological Patient in History: A Commentary • Max Stadler Bibliography List of Contributors Index Tracing the evolution of the neurological patient's role, treatment and place in the history of medicine, this book illustrates how the neurological patient came to occupy its role in Western culture