|
Medically unexplained symptoms,
hysteria, neurasthenia, hypochondria, psychogenic illness, somatic symptoms,
functional illness, malingering—there is ongoing debate amongst specialists
in medicine, psychology, sociology, and the medical humanities about how to
classify, diagnose, treat, and explain disorders affecting
body and mind. Meanwhile, in popular culture, these terms are misunderstood,
unknown, or rejected outright—what was once called “psychosomatic” illness is
heavily stigmatized amongst lay people, while the associated syndromes have
become the site of controversy and antipathy in the provider-patient relationship.
The DSM-5 outlines diagnostic criteria for illness anxiety and somatic
symptoms disorder; medically unexplained symptoms account for as much as 50%
of primary care visits; we make fun of hypochondria in sit-coms; patients
suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and post-treatment
lyme disease syndrome form online communities for support and advocacy—all of
these constituents might be talking about several different disorders, or
one, or none. Despite the common experience of being told that their symptoms
are imaginary, all in their heads, patients are experiencing a very real
illness phenomenon at the intersection of mind and body. But what is it?
Physical or mental Illness? political and social identity? cultural,
narrative, and/or discursive construction?
The proposed collection invites
interdisciplinary analysis of the phenomenon of “psychosomatic” illness as it
is (mis)understood in expert and popular culture. Possible themes or topics
include:
·
the persistence of mind-body dualism in
both expert and lay concepts of illness and wellness
·
the connection between stress and
illness in popular culture
·
the struggle to establish scientific,
social, and cultural legitimacy for controversial diagnoses such as chronic
fatigue syndrome, post-treatment lyme disease syndrome, fibromyalgia
(ME)
·
the evolution of syndromes and the role
of cultural and scientific context
·
the role of gender, race, and class in
expert and lay constructions of “psychosomatic” illness and patient
identity
·
the representation of psychosomatic
and/or contested illness in self-help and wellness programs, magazines, and
websites
·
stereotypes and stigmatization of
hypochondria, “hysteria,” or malingering in medical and popular culture
·
the relative invisibility of
psychosomatic and/or contested illness in fictional narrative (from literary
fiction to medical melodramas on tv)
·
the role of medical narrative/narrative
medicine in mediating provider-patient conflict about medically unexplained
or somatic symptoms and controversial diagnoses
Essays should be interdisciplinary in
scope and engaging to a diverse, non-specialist audience. Please send
500-word proposals and a CV to Carol-Ann Farkas by February 29 2016. We
have a contract with the publisher and are trying to round out the
collection. The deadline for the draft manuscript is June 16 2016.
|