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TITLE: MAD
TRAVELLERS
AUTHOR: Hacking, Ian ISBN hb: 1 85343 477 9 PAGES: 250 LIST PRICE hb: £ 15.95 ($25.00) PUB DATE: April 1999
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TITLE: MAD
TRAVELLERS
AUTHOR: Hacking, Ian ISBN hb: 1 85343 477 9 PAGES: 250 LIST PRICE hb: £ 15.95 ($25.00) PUB DATE: April 1999
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| DESCRIPTION: Thus begins the recorded
case history of Dadas, the first diagnosed "mad traveller" or fuguer, who
suffered from a strange compulsion that led him to travel compulsively,
often without identification, not knowing who he was or why he travelled.
Today we are similarly besieged by the mental illnesses of the moment,
such as chronic fatigue syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
The debate rages about whether these conditions are affectations or cultural artifacts and this book uses the Dadas case to weigh the legitimacy of cultural versus physical symptoms in the diagnosis of psychiatric disorders. "It all began one morning last July when we noticed a young man of twenty-six crying in Dr Pitre's ward. He had just come from a long journey on foot and was exhausted, and wept because he could not prevent himself from departing on a trip when the need took him; he deserted his family, work and daily life to walk as fast as he could, straight ahead, sometimes doing 70 km a day on foot until, in the end, he would be arrested for vagrancy and thrown into prison." Dr Philippe Tissie, July 1886
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