The Sleeping Beauties: And Other Stories of Mystery Illness
Suzanne O'Sullivan
Top 10 Best Quotes
“Western medicine’s love of drawing people into diagnostic categories and applying disease names to small differences and minor bodily changes is not specific to functional disorders – it is a general trend. Pre-diabetes, polycystic ovaries, some cancers and many more conditions have all been subject to the problem of over-inclusive diagnosis. My biggest concern in this regard is the degree to which many people are wholly unaware of the subjective nature of the medical classification of disease. If a person is told they have this or that disorder, they assume it must be right. The Latin names we give to things and the shiny scanning machines make it look as if there is more authority than actually exists. To a certain extent, Sienna pursued each diagnosis she was given, but other people have diagnoses thrust upon them, having no idea that there might be anything controversial about it – and having no idea that they have a choice. Western medicine’s hold on people, and its sense of being systematic and accurate, makes it a powerful force in the transmission of cultural concepts of what constitutes wellness or ill health. But Western medicine is just as enslaved to fads and trends as any other tradition of medicine.”
“We physicalize mood, emotional well-being and even personality. Confident people stand with confidence.”
“The mind is a function of the brain and is created from biology.”
“The children translate for the parents ... They are their parents' conduit to the new world.”
“The brain is a cultured organ. It depends on exposure to learn. Only a small part of learning is conscious.”
“The [asylum-seeking] children are embodying a sociocultural phenomenon. Their story has been written across nations, in a combination that has made them unique. It has been impacted by poor social circumstances, poor nutrition, epigenetics, abusers, authority figures, politicians, parents, doctors and the media.”
“That's how modern medicine works: disease impresses people; illness with no evidence of the disease does not. Psychological illness, psychosomatic and functional symptoms are the least respected of medical problems.”
“That is Western medicine's culture-bound syndrome - we make sick people. We medicalize difference, even when no objective pathology is available to be found.”
“Pathology is a fact independent of the observer, but how one responds to symptoms is drawn from knowledge and experience.”
“Memory is tricky; stories evolve in the telling and retelling, with contributions from many parties.”
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Book Keywords:
family, migration, children, responsiveness, knowledge, memory, biology, emotion, disease, psychological-illness, circumstances, physical-behaviour, stereotyped-prejudices, evolution, learning, experience, story, evidence, modern-medicine, functional-symptoms, psychosomatic, mind, asylum-seekers, pathology, consciousness, brain, perception, functional-neurological-disorder, science, awareness, political