Abstract
The present deconstruction of Gilles de la Tourette’s Syndrome introduces this complex disorder using an existential paradigm. An analysis of the history of constructed reason and power highlights the assumptions of ‘disorder’ that infiltrate society and serves to critique predisposed thought with reference to Tourette’s. The review considers the representationalist theory of language and concepts within psychiatric discourse. A brief analysis of previous case studies shows Tourettic energy as part of the individual ‘self’ and introduces a comparison of Tourettic movement to more mutual human experience, such as music and poetry. Past research that explores preventative social interaction is introduced, which show positive advancements in treatment by challenging the conventions of internal etiology and which highlights the importance of reducing attached stigma.
Highlights
Over a century since its first formal diagnoses by the man whose name became the eponym for the condition, Gilles de la Tourette’s syndrome remains an enigmatic phenomenon with no consistently identifiable pathology
In Madness and Civilisation, Foucault notes that this is a common trait in people’s perception of madness and suggests, “what the eighteenth century had first noticed about it was not the secret interrogation, but only the social effects: the torn clothes, the arrogance in rags” (Foucault, 2009, p. 190), a sentiment highlighting a history of how physical representation proceeds and dominates any real understanding of the internal condition
Porter (1987) observed that “the history of madness is the history of power” and noted that “labeling insanity is primarily a social act, a cultural construct.”. He argues “do we call people mentally ‘confused’ because we find them confusing?”
Summary
Over a century since its first formal diagnoses by the man whose name became the eponym for the condition, Gilles de la Tourette’s syndrome remains an enigmatic phenomenon with no consistently identifiable pathology. Hollenbeck introduces the paradox of Gilles de la Tourette’s syndrome; a ‘disease’ that only becomes apparent in the context of social and political milieu, or what we may more commonly consider public space (Davis, Davis & Dowler, 2003). This is not to suggest that the suffering caused by Tourette’s is illusionary. In 2009, Culter, Murphy, Gilmour and Heyman provided research that highlighted the damage caused by stigma They reported children diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome as having a lower subjective quality of life and, crucially, the most significant reasons effecting this quality of life were social/emotional problems rather than physical symptoms. In Madness and Civilisation, Foucault notes that this is a common trait in people’s perception of madness and suggests, “what the eighteenth century had first noticed about it (madness) was not the secret interrogation, but only the social effects: the torn clothes, the arrogance in rags” (Foucault, 2009, p. 190), a sentiment highlighting a history of how physical representation proceeds and dominates any real understanding of the internal condition
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