Summary of External Review
Dr. Dalby of the University of Calgary writes an interesting review of the book Mad Travelers: Reflections on the Reality of Transient Mental Illnesses. This review briefly summarizes key points from Mad Travelers: Reflections of the Reality of Transient Mental Illnesses, and then provides us with a summary of his thoughts regarding the quality of the book and a summary of Dr. Dalby’s thoughts regarding the main message of the book and what we can take away from Mad Travelers: Reflections of the Reality of Transient Mental Illnesses.
Dr. Dalby references the question of precisely what old fuguers suffered from in his review. Some examples of answers to this question include epilepsy and temporal lobe lesions. Along with referencing the question of what exactly old fuguers suffered from, Dr. Dalby also mentions the question of whether the doctors of the day were warranted in creating a diagnosis for hysterical fugue as a real illness. The third question Dr. Dalby emphasizes as “most important” is whether similar conclusions to those drawn about fugue can be drawn about specific mental illnesses today (Dalby, 2001).
Dr. Dalby praises the “scholarship” of the book and states that one can appreciate the supplementary material that allows one to create a personal opinion about the transient mental illness Hacking describes (Dalby, 2001). Dr. Dalby reaches the final conclusion that medical progress could be made in psychiatry by studying the medical disorders of the past which have yet to be fully studied, rather than focusing on new medical disorders that catch our interest. Dr. Dalby also writes that the clinical psychologist pathway of investigating a mental illness is highlighted in Hacking’s book Mad Travelers: Reflections of the Reality of Transient Mental Illnesses. Dr. Dalby paints a picture of Hacking as a very strong scholar gifted with “clarity, humility and wit (Dalby, 2001).”
Personal Reflection on Book Review
Generally, it is true that Hacking writes with insight and wit, however, it does not seem that the purpose of the book is the same purpose that Dr. Dalby believes it to be. Dr. Dalby states that medical progress can be advanced by studying unsolved mysteries in past diagnoses, rather than current “syndromes (Dalby, 2001).” Hacking would not agree with this statement because he believes his work is of vital importance not because of the historical aspects of his work, but because of the relevance to current studies of illness.
Hacking would argue that it is important to study new syndromes, and that some old syndromes can be left unsolved. It is likely that Hacking chose the illness of fugue in order to illustrate a broader idea of illness being situated in an ecological niche. It seems as though Hacking chose to cover the ecological niche because he believes that future models of mental illlness can benefit from his philosophical take on mental illness. I disagree with Dr. Dalby because I believe that it will be of crucial importance to study illnesses of the future with the knowledge we have gleaned from the past, not to study only the past and not the current illnesses and ecological niches. It seems as though Dr. Dalby may have said that it is important to study past and not current illnesses in error.
Works Cited
Dalby, J. Thomas. “Mad Travelers: Reflections on the Reality of Transient Mental Illnesses.” Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, vol. 37, no. 4, 2001, pp. 398–398., doi:10.1002/jhbs.1072.
Hacking, Ian. Mad Travelers: Reflections on the Reality of Transient Mental Illnesses. Harvard Univ. Press, 2006.
Kelly, Mark. “Michel Foucault:Political Thought.” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, www.iep.utm.edu/fouc-pol/.
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