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A CURSING BRAIN?

Name: A CURSING BRAIN?
Author: Howard I. Kushner
ISBN: 0-674-18022-4

THE HISTORIES OF TOURETTE SYNDROME

by Howard I. Kushner ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1999

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A well-documented, scholarly analysis of the changing ways in which practitioners have tried to explain the baffling phenomenon of motor tics and involuntary shouts, barks, and curses exhibited by those with Tourette syndrome. Kushner, a medical historian (San Diego State Univ.) grounded in neurobiology and neurochemistry, opens with the “case of the cursing marquise,” a French noblewoman whom the Parisian neurologist Georges Gilles de Tourette chose in 1885 as his exemplar of the illness he labeled “maladie des tics.” Tourette considered it to be both progressive and hereditary. The standard work on the subject for the first half of this century, Tics and Their Treatment, assumed that heredity combined with habit and weakness of will to produce the symptoms. In the psychoanalytic view, the bizarre behaviors were seen as one possible outcome of a narcissistic, repressed childhood sexuality. In the 1920s and ’40s the conflicting view that tics had an organic basis was given support by the connection that had been established between focal infections and other motor disorders. Kushner traces how these differing views of Tourette’s causes shaped not only patients’ and physicians’ perception of the disorder but also its treatment: psychotherapy, lobotomies, removal of teeth or tonsils—all were tried and claims made for their effectiveness. The psychoanalytic approach, while still holding sway in France, has now given way to the organic view in the US and Great Britain, and Kushner recounts the role of the Tourette Syndrome Association in publicizing this view and lobbying for research funding to determine the brain mechanisms involved and to find effective drug treatments. His skeptical conclusion that the success and decline of the various approaches owes more to the power of a shared set of beliefs than to the rigor of scientific testing is persuasive. A fascinating document for medical history buffs, albeit a sometimes disturbing one for Touretters and their families. (10 photos, 2 illustrations, not seen)

Pub Date: April 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-674-18022-4

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Harvard Univ.

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1999

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.