"It all began one morning last July when we noticed a young
manof twenty-six crying in his bed in Dr. Pitre's ward. He had just
come from a longjourney on foot and was exhausted, but that was not
the cause of his tears. He weptbecause he could not prevent himself
from departing on a trip when the need tookhim; he deserted family,
work, and daily life to walk as fast as he could, straightahead,
sometimes doing 70 kilometers a day on foot, until in the end he
would bearrested for vagrancy and thrown in prison."
--Dr.Philippe Tissie, July 1886
Thus begins therecorded case history of Albert Dadas, a native
of France's Bordeaux region and thefirst diagnosed mad traveler, or
fuguer. An occasional employee of a local gascompany, Dadas
suffered from a strange compulsion that led him to
travelobsessively, often without identification, not knowing who he
was or why hetraveled. He became notorious for his extraordinary
expeditions to such far-reachingspots as Algeria, Moscow, and
Constantinople. Medical reports of Dadas set off atthe time of a
small epidemic of compulsive mad voyagers, the epicenter of which
wasBordeaux, but which soon spread throughout France to Italy,
Germany, andRussia.
Today we are similarly besieged by mentalillnesses of the
moment, such as chronic fatigue syndrome and attention
deficithyperactivity disorder. The debate rages about which of
these conditions areaffectations or cultural artifacts and which
are "real." In Mad Travelers, IanHacking uses the Dadas case to
weigh the legitimacy of cultural influences versusphysical symptoms
in the diagnosis of psychiatric disorders. He argues
thatpsychological symptoms find stable homes at a given place and
time, in "ecologicalniches" where transient illnesses flourish.
Usingthe records of Dadas's physician, Philippe Tissie, Hacking
attempts to make sense ofthis strange epidemic. While telling his
fascinating tale, he raises probingquestions about the nature of
mental disorders, the cultural repercussions of theirdiagnosis, and
the relevance of this century-old case study for today's
overanalyzedsociety.
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