| Description |
xii, 303 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
1. An Elusive Syndrome -- 2. The Case of the Cursing Marquise -- 3. A Disputed Illness -- 4. The Case of "O." and the Emergence of Psychoanalysis -- 5. Competing Claims -- 6. The Disappearance of Tic Illness -- 7. Margaret Mahler and the Tic Syndrome -- 8. Haloperidol and the Persistence of the Psychogenic Frame -- 9. The French Resistance -- 10. The Triumph of the Organic Narrative -- 11. Clashing Cultural Conceptions -- 12. Clinical Lessons |
| Summary |
A Cursing Brain? pursues the problematic classification of Tourette syndrome through three distinct but overlapping stories: that of the claims of medical knowledge, that of patients' experiences, and that of cultural expectations and assumptions. Earlier researchers asserted that the bizarre ticcing and impromptu vocalizations were psychological - resulting from sustained bad habits or lack of self-control. Today, patients exhibiting these behaviors are seen as suffering from a neurological disease and generally are treated with drug therapy. Although current clinical research indicates that Tourette's is an organic disorder, this pioneering history of the syndrome reminds us to be skeptical of medical orthodoxies so that we may stay open to fresh understandings and more effective interventions |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages [229]-290) and index |
| Subject |
Tic disorders.
|
|
Tourette syndrome -- History.
|
| LC no. |
98038733 |
| ISBN |
0674180224 (cloth : alk. paper) |
|
