1st Edition

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

272 Pages

by Routledge

272 Pages

by Routledge

Also available as eBook on:

Taylor & Francis eBooks
(Institutional Purchase)Opens in new tab or window

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... Read more

1. Introduction

Part I: The Perception of Health

2. Frances Burney and the Loss and Restoration of Health

Part II: The Misperception of Health

3. Mistakes, Disappointments and Shattered Ideals

4. Gods, Goodness and Going Back: Meanings and Values of Health

5. Rarities of Misperception: Freedom from Doubt

6. The Experts: Guides to the Perception and Misperception of Health

Part III: The Misperceiving Other

7. Unreason: The Unhealthy Mind

8. Pleasure, Delirium and Hypochondria: When the "Mad" Misperceive Their Health

9. Fin de Siècle: Decadence, Degeneration and the Pleasures of Declining Health