Hypochondria: Woeful Imaginations - Hardcover

Baur, Susan

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9780520061071: Hypochondria: Woeful Imaginations

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0520061071 ISBN 13: 9780520061071

Publisher: Univ of California Pr, 1988

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Print Line: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Catalog Number: 87-19144

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From Publishers Weekly:

While hypochondriacs drive many doctors to despair, clinical understanding of this elusive condition has advanced well beyond Freud, who rejected these chronic complainers as untreatable. Baur cites famous exampleslifelong vomiter Charles Darwin, ever-convalescent poet Sara Teasdale, fellow-suffers James Boswell and Samuel Johnsonto show how the hypochondriac uses ailments, real or imagined, to cope with personal problems. Exposing the ways a preoccupation with illness can be instilled in childhood, she evaluates various therapeutic approachesneo-Freudian, behavior modification, group sessions, drugs, family therapy. She ponders the high incidence of hypochondria among doctors, dancers, musicians and artists, and investigates the stresses that generate this condition among the elderly. A psychologist and author of The Edge of an Unfamiliar World, Baur views American culturewith its self-centeredness, widespread poverty and obsession with the bodyas a breeding ground for hypochondria.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

An ailment that has long challenged the medical profession, hypochondria is essentially a transmutation of emotional or psychological problems into physical disabilities deemed socially acceptable. Baur examines this wide-spread malady through the prism of multiple disciplinesanthropology, sociology, psychology, and medicinedemonstrating that both symptoms and treatment express cultural and social biases. She further quotes extensively such well-known hypochondriacs as Samuel Johnson, Charles Darwin, and Sara Teasdale, though her method of interweaving contemporary with historic incident is slightly confusing. With its broad focus on an intriguing topic, this should have considerable reader appeal. Carol R. Glatt, Northeastern Hospital of Philadelphia
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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