From the Mind Into the Body: The Cultural Origins of Psychosomatic Symptoms

The symptoms we may develop without suffering from actual, organic illness are due to an interaction between biological and cultural forces of gender, social class, ethnicity and age, according to Shorter ( From Paralysis to Fatigue ), who includes patient histories as part of his research for this probing and balanced historical perspective on psychomatic woes. The author cites somatic symptoms of 19th-century working-class women (induced by hard, traumatic lives) and of middle-class and rich women (often treated by unnecessary surgery). The Chinese, he notes, seek relief from psychosomatic complaints with herbs, while East European Jews turn to learned Jewish ``nerve doctors'' to treat ``historic stresses'' caused by persecution and immigration. Shorter also discusses somatic ``fads'' of the young--hypoglycemia of the 1950s and today's chronic fatigue syndrome--along with the sometimes fatal self-starvation caused by anorexia nervosa. (Nov.)