THE REAL KARLO PISTAZJA
For the original 17th century account of his forensic definition of personhood, try:
Locke, John, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding: Book II: Ideas (1689) Chapter xxvii, Identity and Diversity.
And for its 20th century dismantling:
Parfit, Derek, ‘Personal Identity’, The Philosophical Review 8(1) (1971), 3–27 http://www.jstor.org/stable/2184309
THE WORDS TO SAY IT
Shorter, Edward, From Paralysis to Fatigue: A History of Psychosomatic Illness in the Modern Era (1991), The Free Press
An excellent historical account of how doctors and society have viewed functional disorders, together with thoughts on the physical, social, psychological and cultural origins of these symptoms, can be found in From Paralysis to Fatigue. I have borrowed ideas developed by Shorter, debated them with friends and colleagues, and used the results extensively in this book, and, indeed, in my own medical practice, and I am indebted to his work.
Stone, Jon, ‘Functional Symptoms in Neurology’, Practical Neurology 9 (2009), 179-189.
For Dr Marks’ account of the different ways in which functional disorders are labelled by doctors, and how these labels are perceived by patients, I have borrowed and adapted from Dr Jon Stone’s article.
Stone’s website www.neurosymptoms.org is a fantastic resource for patients and their clinicians for both understanding, coping with, and finding the words to talk about, this complex and difficult family of conditions.
SHANGALANG
Gillon, Raanan, ‘Medical Ethics: Four Principles Plus Attention to Scope’, British Medical Journal 16, 309(6948) (1994): 184-188
For a concise and readable account of the ‘four principles’ approach to thinking about medical ethics, see Gillon’s article. Professor Gillon’s advocacy of the original work of Beauchamp and Childress has influenced a generation of students and doctors, providing us with a firm platform to be able to think clearly and dispassionately about ethical problems in medicine.
‘… I have never found appeals to God helpful…’
This is a version of the dilemma posed in Plato’s Euthyphro: ‘Is what is pious loved by the Gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the Gods?’
THREE VIEWS OF A MOUNTAIN
Aviv, Rachel, ‘The Apathetic’, The New Yorker, 23/7/17
For ‘Resignation Syndrome’.
Hacking, Ian, Rewriting the Soul: Multiple Personality and the Science of Memory (1995), Princeton University Press
Hacking, Ian, Mad Travellers: Reflections on the Reality of Transient Mental Illnesses (1998), University of Virginia Press
I have borrowed the idea of vectors acting on human behaviour, and how people, when experiencing certain kinds of illness, are obliged to act under those descriptions of illness which are culturally available to them, from the Canadian philosopher Ian Hacking, who describes, in his books, the conditions, or vectors that he sees as being necessary for epidemics of what he calls ‘transient mental illness’. Reading Hacking’s work transformed my view of the philosophy of medicine: indeed it introduced me to the concept that there might be such a thing. His thinking is clear, engaging, and available to the non-specialist, and I would recommend him to any interested reader.
WHEN DARKNESS FALLS
‘The effect of a classification system that looks biological, is to affect the way that we think about it…’
This idea is borrowed from the review ‘Lost in the Forest’, of the Diagnostic and Statistacal Manual (V), by Ian Hacking, London Review of Books, August 2013
Healy, David, The Anti-Depressant Era (1999), Harvard University Press.
For a fascinating and readable account of the history of depression in psychiatry, and the influence of the science of brain chemistry on how we think about mood and how we experience it, try this. I have borrowed extensively from Healy’s ideas for this chapter, including the image of the biochemical key fitting a lock whose shape is pre-determined by companies marketing both an illness and a cure.
Borch-Jacobsen, Mikkel, ‘Psychotropicana’, London Review of Books, July 11, 2002
For a briefer and accessible account of the relationship between mood, society, the medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry, try this essay.
Yalom, Irvin D., Love’s Executioner, and Other Tales of Psychotherapy (1968), Penguin.
‘Everything comes to an end….’ The austere thoughts and reflections which follow here evolved from the introduction to this book.
THE GHOST IN THE MACHINE
Dennett, Daniel C., ‘Why You Can’t Make a Computer That Feels Pain.’ Synthese 38, no. 3 (1978): 415-56. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20115302.
My model of a ‘web of interconnecting boxes and lines…’ together with my idea of constructing a ‘pain machine,’ as a way of illustrating the difficulties we have framing exactly what we mean by pain, is influenced by the philosopher Daniel Dennett in this essay.
OPIATES ARE THE OPIATE OF THE PEOPLE PT II
Bourke, Joanna, The Story of Pain: From Prayer to Painkillers (2014), OUP.
For my reflections on the cultural history of pain and its diverse meanings, I was immensely helped and influenced by Joanna Bourke’s book.
Quinones, Sam, Dreamland (2015), Bloomsbury.
Lembke, Anna, Drug Dealer, MD, How Doctors Got Duped, Patients Got Hooked and Why It’s So Hard to Stop (2016), Johns Hopkins University Press.
A great deal has been written about the ‘medical disaster’ of the epidemic of chronic pain and its relationship with over-treatment by doctors with strong opiates, particularly in the US. Examples include Dreamland, which is an excellent, accessible and compelling read, and Drug Dealer, MD, which offers a more medical perspective.