The Puerto Rican Syndrome (Paperback, New)

During the 1950s, US Army medical officers noted a new and puzzling syndrome that contemporary psychiatry could neither explain nor cure. These doctors reported that Puerto Rican soldiers under stress behaved in a very peculiar and dramatic manner, exhibiting a theatrical form of pseudo-epilepsy. Startled physicians observed frightened and disoriented patients foaming at the mouth, screaming, biting, kicking, shaking in seizures, and fainting. The phenomenon seemed to correspond to a serious neurological disease yet, as with some forms of hysteria, physical examination failed to identify any sign of an organic origin. This unusual set of symptoms, entered into medical records as "a group of striking psychopathological reaction patterns, precipitated by minor stress," was designated "Puerto Rican Syndrome." In this lucid and sophisticated new work, Patricia Gherovici thoroughly examines the so-called Puerto Rican Syndrome in the contemporary world, its social and cultural implications for the growing Hispanic population in the US and, therefore, for the US as a whole. As a mental illness that is, allegedly, uniquely Puerto Rican, this syndrome links nationality and culture to a psychiatric disease whose reappearance recalls the spectacular hysteria that led to the discovery of the unconscious and the birth of psychoanalysis. Gherovici beautifully and systematically uses the combined insights of Freud and Lacan to examine the current state of psychoanalysis and the Hispanic community in America. Blending these insights with history, current events, and her own case material, Gherovici provides a startling, fresh look at the Puerto Rican Syndrome as social and cultural phenomenon. Shesheds new light on the future of American society and argues that psychoanalysis is not only possible, but much needed in the ghetto.

General

Imprint:	Other Press
Country of origin:	United States
Series:	Cultural Studies
Release date:	November 2003
First published:	November 2003
Authors:	Patricia Gherovici
Dimensions:	229 x 152 x 18mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - Trade
Pages:	320
Edition:	New
ISBN-13:	978-1-892746-75-7
Categories:	Books > Medicine > Clinical & internal medicine > Neurology & clinical neurophysiology Books > Medicine > Other branches of medicine > Psychiatry Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Anthropology > General Promotions
LSN:	1-892746-75-1
Barcode:	9781892746757

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