A Cursing Brain? The Histories of Tourette Syndrome

by Howard I. Kushner

Over a century and a half ago, a French physician reported the bizarre behavior of a young aristocratic woman who would suddenly, without warning, erupt in a startling fit of obscene shouts and curses. The image of the afflicted Marquise de Dampierre echoes through the decades as the emblematic example of an illness that today represents one of the fastest-growing diagnoses in North America. Tourette syndrome is a set of behaviors, including recurrent ticcing and involuntary shouting (sometimes cursing) as well as obsessive-compulsive actions. The fascinating history of this syndrome reveals how cultural and medical assumptions have determined and radically altered its characterization and treatment from the early nineteenth century to the present.

A Cursing Brain? traces the problematic classification of Tourette syndrome through three distinct but overlapping that of the claims of medical knowledge, that of patients' experiences, and that of cultural expectations and assumptions. Earlier researchers asserted that the bizarre ticcing and impromptu vocalizations were psychological--resulting from sustained bad habits or lack of self-control. Today, patients exhibiting these behaviors are seen as suffering from a neurological disease and generally are treated with drug therapy. Although current clinical research indicates that Tourette's is an organic disorder, this pioneering history of the syndrome reminds us to be skeptical of medical orthodoxies so that we may stay open to fresh understandings and more effective interventions.

Genres: Nonfiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published April 25, 1999

Reviews

[ThymeOperator · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not just about Tourette's, but also a history of psychiatry - incredibly fascinating and eye-opening. For instance, did you know France to this day doesn't like anyone contradicting psychoanalysis because they see it as Nazism, since Hitler drove out Freud? Or how about the endless ways adults have tried to suppress children, prevent them from being normal kids?

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting and informative book recapping the history of TS. I would have given it more stars if not for the cumbersome style of the writing.

[Tawfiqam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book! If you are interested in understanding the history of Tourett's Syndrome, along with the medical, psychiatric, policy and organizational changes as the syndrome became better understood, then this is the book for you.

One of the most interesting stories discussed in the book involves the creation of patient and parent support groups and the effects of their advocacy on medical research.

[Johnny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overly technical and wordy. Lacking in interesting case studies and very dated. My twitching Tourette's brain waqs very disappointed. Hasn't anybody put out a book on this condition that doesn't suck?

[Patricia Boyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a difficult book to read; written primarily for the medical historian. This book outlines the history of Gilles de la Tourette syndrome and the fight within the medical community to classify the syndrome as being of psychogenic or somatic origin.