Mad Travelers - Reflections on the Reality of Transient Mental Illnesses (Hardcover)

"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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