From the mind into the body

by Edward Shorter

Psychosomatic illness has no apparent physiological cause. By definition, it originates in the mind. But now, in this fascinating work, the foremost authority on the history of psychosomatic illness shows that the forms it takes are in fact a product of something much larger. Symptoms are produced not just by an individual's psychology, but also by one's genetic history and even by the time and culture in which we live. When we fall ill with psychosomatic pain, our symptoms most often - and quite unconsciously - reflect our particular ethnic group, age, class, or gender. In this landmark work, Edward Shorter continues his important inquiry into the nature of psychosomatic illness. Drawing on a vast array of engrossing, colorful, and often humorous historical case studies, he explores the newly discovered relationship between social identity and the varieties of psychosomatic disorders. Tracing the interplay of cultural and biological factors in psychosomatic distress, Shorter shows tha