The Woman Who Walked into the Sea: Huntington's and the Making of a Genetic Disease
- ISBN-10
- 0300151772
- ISBN-13
- 9780300151770
- Category
- Medical
- Pages
- 288
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2008-09-30
- Publisher
- Yale University Press
- Author
- Alice Wexler
Description
A groundbreaking medical and social history of a devastating hereditary neurological disorder once demonized as “the witchcraft disease” When Phebe Hedges, a woman in East Hampton, New York, walked into the sea in 1806, she made visible the historical experience of a family affected by the dreaded disorder of movement, mind, and mood her neighbors called St.Vitus's dance. Doctors later spoke of Huntington’s chorea, and today it is known as Huntington's disease. This book is the first history of Huntington’s in America. Starting with the life of Phebe Hedges, Alice Wexler uses Huntington’s as a lens to explore the changing meanings of heredity, disability, stigma, and medical knowledge among ordinary people as well as scientists and physicians. She addresses these themes through three overlapping stories: the lives of a nineteenth-century family once said to “belong to the disease”; the emergence of Huntington’s chorea as a clinical entity; and the early-twentieth-century transformation of this disorder into a cautionary eugenics tale. In our own era of expanding genetic technologies, this history offers insights into the social contexts of medical and scientific knowledge, as well as the legacy of eugenics in shaping both the knowledge and the lived experience of this disease.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
How Institutions are Shaping the Future of Our Children: For Better or for Worse?
By Catherine Dulmus, Karen SowersLammert, M., & Timberlake, E. M. (1986). Termination of foster care for the older adolescent: Issues of emancipation and individuation.
-
Reversibility of Chronic Disease and Hypersensitivity, Volume 5: Treatment Options of Chemical Sensitivity
By William J. Rea, Kalpana D. PatelDou, L., E. Bertrand, C. Cerini, V. Faure, J. Sampol, R. Vanholder, Y. Berland, P. Brunet. ... A. Timberlake, B. Sumpio, R. Pfragner, I. M. Modlin, M. Kidd.
-
Rockwood and Green's Fractures in Adults
By William Ricci, Charles M. Court-Brown, Margaret M. McQueenChendrasekhar A, Moorman DW, Timberlake GA. An evaluation of the effects of ... Chittiboina P, Wylen E, Ogden A, et al. Traumatic spondylolisthesis of the ...
-
Breast Pathology, An Issue of Surgical Pathology Clinics
By Laura C. CollinsHartmann LC, Radisky DC, Frost MH, et al. Understanding the premalignant potential of ... D'Alfonso TM, Wang K, Chiu YL, et al. Pathologic upgrade rates on ...
-
Telepractice in Speech-Language Pathology
By K. Todd HoustonStensland, J., Speedie, S., Ideker, M., House, J., & Thompson, T. (1999). The relative cost of outpatient ... Deal, J. L. (1987). Appraisal and diagnosis of ...
-
Addressing Adversity: Prioritising adversity and trauma-informed care for children and young people in England.
By Marc Bush, Lord Victor Adebowale, Rebecca Adlington1 2 Howard, S. and Johnson, B. (2000) Resilient and Non-resilient Behaviour in ... 4 De Haan, L., Hawley, D. and Deal, J. (2002) 'Operationalizing family ...
-
Culture, Brain, and Analgesia: Understanding and Managing Pain in Diverse Populations
By Mario Incayawar, Knox H. Todd... are not fluent in the language/s of the medical care provider.72 Research ... Anglo-Americans have traditionally placed a great deal of emphasis on the ...
-
Image-Guided Spine Interventions
By John M. MathisThis practical guide thoroughly discusses both well-established and new interventions that are applied to the spine for the purpose of pain relief.
-
New Mynursinglab -- Access Card -- For Maternal-Child Nursing (24-Month Access)
By Pearson Education, Pearson Education, Inc., David P Pearson EducationSeveral versions of Pearson's MyLab & Mastering products exist for each title, including customized versions for individual schools, and registrations are not transferable.
-
Pearson's Medical Assisting (General)
By Pearson Education Staff, Madan Dr Pearson EducationIf a picture paints a thousand words, imagine what video can do? Pearson Medical Assisting Videos help users learn the nuances and the details of many medical assisting procedures.