A History of Euphoria: The Perception and Misperception of Health and Well-Being

A History of Euphoria: The Perception and Misperception of Health and Well-Being
ISBN-10
0429647859
ISBN-13
9780429647857
Category
History
Pages
260
Language
English
Published
2018-12-20
Publisher
Routledge
Author
Christopher Milnes

Description

Very few people have not at some point in their lives believed themselves or their loved ones to be reasonably healthy when, in "reality", sickness was encroaching or never went away. Health has been deceiving us for thousands of years, but rarely have we entirely dispensed with it as a concept. This book sets out to establish why and how that might be. The first of its kind, this longue durée historical study explores some of the ways in which people in western societies and cultures have come to believe that they, or other people, have perceived or misperceived health, well-being and euphoria—a word which, before the twentieth century, usually named the experience of health. This book draws from a number of areas of historical research, including the histories of convalescence, addiction, madness and Sigmund Freud’s interest in Euphorie in his pre-psychoanalytical period.

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