The Sleeping Beauties And Other Stories Of Mystery Illness

Author : Suzanne O'Sullivan
Publisher : Picador
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2021-05-11
Category : History
ISBN : 9781760985967

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The Sleeping Beauties: And Other Stories of Mystery Illness by Suzanne O'Sullivan Pdf

It is much more important to know what sort of a patient has a disease, than what sort of disease a patient has. William Osler Suzanne O'Sullivan is a neurologist, who looks after people with brain diseases. She is also fascinated by psychosomatic disorders - seizures, paralysis, blindness - disabilities that originate more in the mind than in the structure of the brain. Hysteria by another name. Medical conditions that people find so shameful that they often exist below the radar. Or they are given labels that make them more acceptable or more difficult to spot. Some believe that hysteria is rare. Any neurologist will tell you it isn’t. They see a form of it in every clinic, on every working day. For those like O'Sullivan, who are drawn to it, sightings are not restricted to the clinic. It is everywhere. And this is how she learned about Andrei, and the 424 other children in Sweden like him, children who have fallen into a state of apathy, a waking coma, some for months, some for years. But why? The Sleeping Beauties is the story of these children in Sweden but it is also an exploration of different aspects of psychosomatic disorders, mass hysteria, culture bound syndromes and the idioms of distress. Culture bound syndromes are a set of symptoms that exist only within a particular society. Windigo is a condition that affects Native Americans. It manifests as a fear that the sufferer has turned into a cannibal. Koro, an intense anxiety that the penis will recede into the body, is seen almost exclusively in Malaysia. Susto is prevalent in Latinos who live in the States. Triggered by traumatic events the symptoms include anorexia, nervousness, insomnia and diarrhea. There are over two hundred culture bound syndromes. They are listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as rare psychiatric conditions. However within the societies in which they exist they are more likely to be regarded as folk illnesses. They are culturally acceptable ways to express distress. Two questions arise. Who defines psychiatric illness and what shapes the manner in which distress is communicated within a society? Reminiscent of the work of Oliver Sacks, Stephen Grosz and Henry Marsh, this is a remarkable scientific investigation with a very human face.

Author : Suzanne O'Sullivan
Publisher : Random House
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2015-06-04
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9781473511439

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It's All in Your Head by Suzanne O'Sullivan Pdf

A neurologist explores the very real world of psychosomatic illness. Pauline first became ill when she was fifteen. What seemed to be a urinary infection became joint pain, then life-threatening appendicitis. After a routine operation Pauline lost all the strength in her legs. Shortly afterwards, convulsions started. But Pauline’s tests are normal: her symptoms seem to have no physical cause whatsoever. This may be an extreme case, but Pauline is not alone. As many as a third of people visiting their GP have symptoms that are medically unexplained. In most, an emotional root is suspected which is often the last thing a patient wants to hear and a doctor to say. We accept our hearts can flutter with excitement and our brows can sweat with nerves, but on this journey into the very real world of psychosomatic illness, Suzanne O'Sullivan finds the secrets we are all capable of keeping from ourselves. ‘A fascinating glimpse into the human condition... a forceful call for society to be more open about such suffering’ Daily Mail ‘Honest, fascinating and necessary’ The Times

Author : Suzanne O'Sullivan
Publisher : Pantheon
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2021-09-21
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9781524748388

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The Sleeping Beauties by Suzanne O'Sullivan Pdf

In Sweden, hundreds of refugee children fall into a state that resembles sleep for months or years at a time. In Le Roy, a town in upstate New York, teenage girls develop involuntary twitches and seizures that spread like a conta­gion. In the U.S. Embassy in Cuba, employees experience headaches and memory loss after hearing strange noises during the night. These are only a few of the many sus­pected culture-bound psychosomatic syndromes—specific sets of symptoms that exist in a particular culture or environment—that affect people throughout the world. In The Sleeping Beauties, Dr. Suzanne O’Sullivan—an award-winning Irish neurologist—investigates psychosomatic disorders, traveling the world to visit communi­ties suffering from these so-called mystery illnesses. From a derelict post-Soviet mining town in Kazakhstan to the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua to the heart of the María Mountains in Colombia, O’Sullivan records the remark­able stories of syndromes related to her by people from all walks of life. Riveting and often distressing, these case studies are recounted with compassion and humanity. In examining the complexity of psychogenic illness, O’Sullivan has written a book of both fascination and se­rious concern as these syndromes continue to proliferate around the globe.

Author : Suzanne O'Sullivan
Publisher : Random House
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2018-04-05
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9781473546769

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Brainstorm by Suzanne O'Sullivan Pdf

'I loved it. She is in my view the best science writer around - a true descendant of Oliver Sacks' Sathnam Sanghera, author of The Boy with the Topknot The brain is the most complex structure in the universe. In Brainstorm the Wellcome Prize-winning author of It’s All in Your Head uncovers the most eye-opening symptoms medicine has to offer. ‘Powerfully life-affirming... Brainstorm is testament to O'Sullivan's unshowy clarity of thought and her continued marvelling at the mysteries of the brain’ Guardian Brainstorm examines the stories of people whose symptoms are so strange even their doctor struggles to know how to solve them. A man who sees cartoon characters running across the room; a teenager who one day arrives home with inexplicably torn clothes; a girl whose world turns all Alice in Wonderland; another who transforms into a ragdoll whenever she even thinks about moving. The brain is the most complex structure in the universe, and neurologists must puzzle out life-changing diagnoses from the tiniest of clues – it’s the ultimate in medical detective work. In this riveting book, one of the UK’s leading neurologists takes you with her as she follows the trail of her patients’ symptoms: feelings of déjà vu lead us to a damaged hippocampus; spitting and fidgeting to the right temporal lobe; fear of movement to a brain tumour; a missed heart beat to the limbic system. It’s a journey that will open your eyes to the unfathomable intricacies of the brain, and the infinite variety of human capacity and experience.

Author : Stephen King,Owen King
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 725 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2017-09-26
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781501163425

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Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King,Owen King Pdf

In this spectacular New York Times bestselling father/son collaboration that “barrels along like a freight train” (Publishers Weekly), Stephen King and Owen King tell the highest of high-stakes stories: what might happen if women disappeared from the world of men? In a future so real and near it might be now, something happens when women go to sleep: they become shrouded in a cocoon-like gauze. If they are awakened, if the gauze wrapping their bodies is disturbed or violated, the women become feral and spectacularly violent. And while they sleep they go to another place, a better place, where harmony prevails and conflict is rare. One woman, the mysterious “Eve Black,” is immune to the blessing or curse of the sleeping disease. Is Eve a medical anomaly to be studied? Or is she a demon who must be slain? Abandoned, left to their increasingly primal urges, the men divide into warring factions, some wanted to kill Eve, some to save her. Others exploit the chaos to wreak their own vengeance on new enemies. All turn to violence in a suddenly all-male world. Set in a small Appalachian town whose primary employer is a woman’s prison, Sleeping Beauties is a wildly provocative, gloriously dramatic father-son collaboration that feels particularly urgent and relevant today.

Author : Laura Amy Schlitz
Publisher : Candlewick Press
Page : 400 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2010-03-02
Category : Juvenile Fiction
ISBN : 9780763652159

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A Drowned Maiden's Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz Pdf

"People throw the word 'classic' about a lot, but A Drowned Maiden's Hair genuinely deserves to become one." — Wall Street Journal Maud Flynn is known at the orphanage for her impertinence, so when the charming Miss Hyacinth and her sister choose Maud to take home with them, the girl is as baffled as anyone. It seems the sisters need Maud to help stage elaborate séances for bereaved, wealthy patrons. As Maud is drawn deeper into the deception, playing her role as a "secret child," she is torn between her need to please and her growing conscience -- until a shocking betrayal makes clear just how heartless her so-called guardians are. Filled with tantalizing details of turn-of-the-century spiritualism and page-turning suspense, this lively historical novel features a winning heroine whom readers will not soon forget.

Author : Alan Anderson,Linda Anderson
Publisher : New World Library
Page : 176 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2010-10-05
Category : Pets
ISBN : 9781577317678

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Saying Goodbye to Your Angel Animals by Alan Anderson,Linda Anderson Pdf

In this thoughtful book, Allen and Linda Anderson walk you through the numbing pain and dreadful sense of loss that arise when a beloved animal dies. They offer solace to help you deal with grief, remember and honor key moments in the animal’s life, find comfort through groups and with professionals, and get past the depression. They also include exercises, affirmations, and meditations to use through the various stages of grief. The Andersons’ caring, practical advice covers all aspects of pet loss, offering guidance on: helping children grieve, honoring your religious beliefs, grieving for runaway pets, helping others know what to say or do to console you, planning an appropriate memorial ceremony or tribute. The book also explores the concept of after-death experiences of departed companion animals and relates many beautiful stories, including the Rainbow Bridge story, that reinforce the love and sense of peace that come from honoring the place animals hold in our lives.

Author : Robert W. Baloh,Robert E. Bartholomew
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 203 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2020-03-19
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9783030407469

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Havana Syndrome by Robert W. Baloh,Robert E. Bartholomew Pdf

It is one of the most extraordinary cases in the history of science: the mating calls of insects were mistaken for a “sonic weapon” that led to a major diplomatic row. Since August 2017, the world media has been absorbed in the “attack” on diplomats from the American and Canadian Embassies in Cuba. While physicians treating victims have described it as a novel and perplexing condition that involves an array of complaints including brain damage, the authors present compelling evidence that mass psychogenic illness was the cause of “Havana Syndrome.” This mysterious condition that has baffled experts is explored across 11-chapters which offer insights by a prominent neurologist and an expert on psychogenic illness. A lively and enthralling read, the authors explore the history of similar scares from the 18th century belief that sounds from certain musical instruments were harmful to human health, to 19th century cases of “telephone shock,” and more contemporary panics involving people living near wind turbines that have been tied to a variety of health complaints. The authors provide dozens of examples of kindred episodes of mass hysteria throughout history, in addition to psychosomatic conditions and even the role of insects in triggering outbreaks. Havana Syndrome: Mass Psychogenic Illness and the Real Story Behind the Embassy Mystery and Hysteria is a scientific detective story and a case study in the social construction of mass psychogenic illness.

Author : Nancy Siemers
Publisher : Kirk House Publishers
Page : 214 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : Medical
ISBN : 1886513147

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Stories of the Heart by Nancy Siemers Pdf

Author : Alice Feeney
Publisher : Flatiron Books
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2018-03-13
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781250144836

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Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney Pdf

My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me: 1. I’m in a coma. 2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore. 3. Sometimes I lie. Amber wakes up in a hospital. She can’t move. She can’t speak. She can’t open her eyes. She can hear everyone around her, but they have no idea. Amber doesn’t remember what happened, but she has a suspicion her husband had something to do with it. Alternating between her paralyzed present, the week before her accident, and a series of childhood diaries from twenty years ago, this brilliant psychological thriller asks: Is something really a lie if you believe it's the truth?

Author : Wally Lamb
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 884 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 1998-06-03
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 0060391626

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I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb Pdf

With his stunning debut novel, She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb won the adulation of critics and readers with his mesmerizing tale of one woman's painful yet triumphant journey of self-discovery. Now, this brilliantly talented writer returns with I Know This Much Is True, a heartbreaking and poignant multigenerational saga of the reproductive bonds of destruction and the powerful force of forgiveness. A masterpiece that breathtakingly tells a story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal--this novel is a contemporary retelling of an ancient Hindu myth. A proud king must confront his demons to achieve salvation. Change yourself, the myth instructs, and you will inhabit a renovated world. When you're the same brother of a schizophrenic identical twin, the tricky thing about saving yourself is the blood it leaves on your bands--the little inconvenience of the look-alike corpse at your feet. And if you're into both survival of the fittest and being your brother's keeper--if you've promised your dying mother--then say so long to sleep and hello to the middle of the night. Grab a book or a beer. Get used to Letterman's gap-toothed smile of the absurd, or the view of the bedroom ceiling, or the influence of random selection. Take it from a godless insomniac. Take it from the uncrazy twin--the guy who beat the biochemical rap. Dominick Birdsey's entire life has been compromised and constricted by anger and fear, by the paranoid schizophrenic twin brother he both deeply loves and resents, and by the past they shared with their adoptive father, Ray, a spit-and-polish ex-Navy man (the five-foot-six-inch sleeping giant who snoozed upstairs weekdays in the spare room and built submarines at night), and their long-suffering mother, Concettina, a timid woman with a harelip that made her shy and self-conscious: She holds a loose fist to her face to cover her defective mouth--her perpetual apology to the world for a birth defect over which she'd had no control. Born in the waning moments of 1949 and the opening minutes of 1950, the twins are physical mirror images who grow into separate yet connected entities: the seemingly strong and protective yet fearful Dominick, his mother's watchful "monkey"; and the seemingly weak and sweet yet noble Thomas, his mother's gentle "bunny." From childhood, Dominick fights for both separation and wholeness--and ultimately self-protection--in a house of fear dominated by Ray, a bully who abuses his power over these stepsons whose biological father is a mystery. I was still afraid of his anger but saw how he punished weakness--pounced on it. Out of self-preservation I hid my fear, Dominick confesses. As for Thomas, he just never knew how to play defense. He just didn't get it. But Dominick's talent for survival comes at an enormous cost, including the breakup of his marriage to the warm, beautiful Dessa, whom he still loves. And it will be put to the ultimate test when Thomas, a Bible-spouting zealot, commits an unthinkable act that threatens the tenuous balance of both his and Dominick's lives. To save himself, Dominick must confront not only the pain of his past but the dark secrets he has locked deep within himself, and the sins of his ancestors--a quest that will lead him beyond the confines of his blue-collar New England town to the volcanic foothills of Sicily 's Mount Etna, where his ambitious and vengefully proud grandfather and a namesake Domenico Tempesta, the sostegno del famiglia, was born. Each of the stories Ma told us about Papa reinforced the message that he was the boss, that he ruled the roost, that what he said went. Searching for answers, Dominick turns to the whispers of the dead, to the pages of his grandfather's handwritten memoir, The History of Domenico Onofrio Tempesta, a Great Man from Humble Beginnings. Rendered with touches of magic realism, Domenico's fablelike tale--in which monkeys enchant and religious statues weep--becomes the old man's confession--an unwitting legacy of contrition that reveals the truth's of Domenico's life, Dominick learns that power, wrongly used, defeats the oppressor as well as the oppressed, and now, picking through the humble shards of his deconstructed life, he will search for the courage and love to forgive, to expiate his and his ancestors' transgressions, and finally to rebuild himself beyond the haunted shadow of his twin. Set against the vivid panoply of twentieth-century America and filled with richly drawn, memorable characters, this deeply moving and thoroughly satisfying novel brings to light humanity's deepest needs and fears, our aloneness, our desire for love and acceptance, our struggle to survive at all costs. Joyous, mystical, and exquisitely written, I Know This Much Is True is an extraordinary reading experience that will leave no reader untouched.

Author : Michelle Drouin
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 285 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2023-06-06
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9780262545990

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Out of Touch by Michelle Drouin Pdf

A behavioral scientist explores love, belongingness, and fulfillment, focusing on how modern technology can both help and hinder our need to connect. A Next Big Idea Club nominee. Millions of people around the world are not getting the physical, emotional, and intellectual intimacy they crave. Through the wonders of modern technology, we are connecting with more people more often than ever before, but are these connections what we long for? Pandemic isolation has made us even more alone. In Out of Touch, Professor of Psychology Michelle Drouin investigates what she calls our intimacy famine, exploring love, belongingness, and fulfillment and considering why relationships carried out on technological platforms may leave us starving for physical connection. Drouin puts it this way: when most of our interactions are through social media, we are taking tiny hits of dopamine rather than the huge shots of oxytocin that an intimate in-person relationship would provide. Drouin explains that intimacy is not just sex—although of course sex is an important part of intimacy. But how important? Drouin reports on surveys that millennials (perhaps distracted by constant Tinder-swiping) have less sex than previous generations. She discusses pandemic puppies, professional cuddlers, the importance of touch, “desire discrepancy” in marriage, and the value of friendships. Online dating, she suggests, might give users too many options; and the internet facilitates “infidelity-related behaviors.” Some technological advances will help us develop and maintain intimate relationships—our phones, for example, can be bridges to emotional support. Some, on the other hand, might leave us out of touch. Drouin explores both of these possibilities.

Author : Pietro Bartolo,Lidia Tilotta
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2018-01-09
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780393651294

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Tears of Salt: A Doctor's Story by Pietro Bartolo,Lidia Tilotta Pdf

“Tears of Salt… reveals the human side of suffering through the life of one man.” —Adele Annesi, Washington Independent Review of Books Situated more than one hundred miles off Italy’s southern coast, the rocky island of Lampedusa has hit world headlines in recent years as the first port of call for hundreds of thousands of African and Middle Eastern refugees fleeing civil war and terrorism and hoping to make a new life in Europe. Dr. Pietro Bartolo, who runs the lone medical clinic on the island, has been caring for many of them—both the living and the dead—for a quarter century. Tears of Salt is Dr. Bartolo’s moving account of his life and work set against one of the signal crises of our time. With quiet dignity and an unshakable moral center, he tells unforgettable tales of pain and hope, stories of those who didn’t make it and those who did.

Author : Gary Rassel,Suzanne Leland,Zachary Mohr,Elizabethann O'Sullivan
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 553 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2020-12-29
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781000293661

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Research Methods for Public Administrators by Gary Rassel,Suzanne Leland,Zachary Mohr,Elizabethann O'Sullivan Pdf

Research Methods for Public Administrators contains a thorough overview of research methods and statistical applications for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, and practitioners. The material is based on established social science methods. Concepts and applications are discussed and illustrated with examples from actual research. The book covers research design, methods of data collection, instructions on formulating research plans, measurement, sampling procedures, and statistical applications from basic statistics to more advance techniques. The basics of conducting experiments, survey research, case studies, and focus groups are discussed. Data organization, management, and analysis are also covered, as are data analysis and hypothesis testing. Descriptive and inferential statistics are discussed and illustrated with examples. The book also includes a chapter on obtaining and analyzing secondary data (data already collected for other purposes) and a chapter on reporting and presenting research results to a variety of audiences. This is a general textbook written primarily for students of public administration and practitioners in public and not-for-profit organizations. It includes materials shown to be useful in gathering and assessing information for making decisions and implementing policies. The material is discussed at a level to be accessible and with enough detail to be useful. New to the seventh edition: Additional and expanded material on qualitative research, big data, metadata, literature reviews, and causal inference New material on experiments and experimental research New examples and case studies, including those dealing with public policy Expanded material on using computers for data management Information on new NSF and NIH ethics and protection of human subjects requirements for researchers New data sets and Power Point slides for each chapter.

Author : Alix E. Harrow
Publisher : Tordotcom
Page : 99 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2021-10-05
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781250765369

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A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow Pdf

USA Today bestselling author Alix E. Harrow's A Spindle Splintered brings her patented charm to a new version of a classic story. Featuring Arthur Rackham's original illustrations for The Sleeping Beauty, fractured and reimagined. “A vivid, subversive and feminist reimagining of Sleeping Beauty, where implacable destiny is no match for courage, sisterhood, stubbornness and a good working knowledge of fairy tales.” —Katherine Arden It's Zinnia Gray's twenty-first birthday, which is extra-special because it's the last birthday she'll ever have. When she was young, an industrial accident left Zinnia with a rare condition. Not much is known about her illness, just that no-one has lived past twenty-one. Her best friend Charm is intent on making Zinnia's last birthday special with a full sleeping beauty experience, complete with a tower and a spinning wheel. But when Zinnia pricks her finger, something strange and unexpected happens, and she finds herself falling through worlds, with another sleeping beauty, just as desperate to escape her fate. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.