The proposed collection invites interdisciplinary analysis of the phenomenon of “psychosomatic” illness as it is (mis)understood in expert and popular culture. Possible themes or topics include:
- the persistence of mind-body dualism in both expert and lay concepts of illness and wellness
- the connection between stress and illness in popular culture
- the struggle to establish scientific, social, and cultural legitimacy for controversial diagnoses such as chronic fatigue syndrome, post-treatment lyme disease syndrome, fibromyalgia (ME)
- the evolution of syndromes and the role of cultural and scientific context
- the role of gender, race, and class in expert and lay constructions of “psychosomatic” illness and patient identity
- the representation of psychosomatic and/or contested illness in self-help and wellness programs, magazines, and websites
- stereotypes and stigmatization of hypochondria, “hysteria,” or malingering in medical and popular culture
- the relative invisibility of psychosomatic and/or contested illness in fictional narrative (from literary fiction to medical melodramas on tv)
- the role of medical narrative/narrative medicine in mediating provider-patient conflict about medically unexplained or somatic symptoms and controversial diagnoses
Essays should be interdisciplinary in scope and engaging to a diverse, non-specialist audience. Please send 500-word proposals and a CV to Carol-Ann Farkas (carol-ann.farkas@mcphs.edu) by October 15, 2014. Accepted essays should be 5000-7000 words, and will be due by March 1 2015.