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Mad Travelers : Reflections on the Reality of Transient Mental Illnesses
by Hacking, Ian
- Used
- very good
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Very Good/Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 1853434558
- ISBN 13
- 9781853434556
- Seller
-
Benalla, Victoria, Australia
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
London: Free Association Books, 1999. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. 239 pages indexed. Apart from minor, intermittent pencil underscoring, the book is in excellent condition, clean and in solid binding. "It all began one morning last July when we noticed a young man of twenty-six crying in his bed in Dr. Pitres's ward. He had just come from a long journey on foot and was exhausted, but that was not the cause of his tears. He wept because he could not prevent himself from departing on a trip when the need took him; he deserted family, work, and daily life to walk as fast as he could, straight ahead, sometimes doing 70 kilometers a day on foot, until in the end he would be arrested for vagrancy and thrown in prison." - Dr. Philippe Tissie, July 1886. Thus begins the recorded case history of Albert Dadas, a native of France's Bordeaux region and the first diagnosed mad traveller, or fugueur. An occasional employee of a local gas company, Dadas suffered from a strange compulsion that led him to travel obsessively, often without identification, not knowing who he was or why he traveled. He became notorious for his extraordinary expeditions to such far-reaching spots as Algeria, Moscow, and Constantinople. Medical reports of Dadas set off at the time a small epidemic of compulsive mad voyagers, the epicenter of which was Bordeaux but which soon spread throughout France to Italy, Germany, and Russia. Today we are similarly besieged by mental illnesses of the moment, such as chronic fatigue syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The debate rages about which of these conditions are affectations or cultural artifacts and which are "real." In Mad Travellers, Ian Hacking uses the Dadas case to weigh the legitimacy of cultural influences versus physical symptoms in the diagnosis of psychiatric disorders. He argues that psychological symptoms find stable homes at a given place and time, in "ecological niches" where transient illnesses flourish. Using the records of Philippe Tissie, Dadas's physician, Hacking attempts to make sense of this strange epidemic. While telling his fascinating tale, he raises probing questions about the nature of the mental disorders, the cultural repercussions of their diagnosis, and the relevance of this century-old case study for today's overanalysed society." (Publisher)
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Details
- Bookseller
- Good Reading Second Hand Books (AU)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 019397
- Title
- Mad Travelers : Reflections on the Reality of Transient Mental Illnesses
- Author
- Hacking, Ian
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Jacket Condition
- Very Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- ISBN 10
- 1853434558
- ISBN 13
- 9781853434556
- Publisher
- Free Association Books
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 1999
- Size
- 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall
Terms of Sale
Good Reading Second Hand Books
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Good Reading Second Hand Books
Biblio member since 2008
Benalla, Victoria
About Good Reading Second Hand Books
Good Reading operates from a house, which is all bookshop, and holds approximately 35,000 titles. It is open by appointment only.Benalla is a country town two and a half hours north of Melbourne on both the Hume and the Midland Highway.