The social network of functional neurological disorder

Abstract

I approached this review of Suzanne O’Sullivan's latest book, The Sleeping Beauties and other stories of mystery illness, with some trepidation. It is a book about functional disorders—particularly functional neurological disorder—and how they are shaped by the social context they arise in. An open review of any work can be fraught, and I was nervous because of the way I felt after finishing O’Sullivan's first book, It's All in Your Head: true stories of imaginary illness. For me, that book was the rawest expression of a doctor fascinated but struggling to help people with disabling functional disorders, which until recently have not appeared in neurology textbooks. That book contained beautifully observed case histories and made gripping reading for a general audience (“wow, people can really be blind or paralysed from these disorders?!”). But I did wonder if some of the satisfaction of the readership lay in what—for me at least—was an overly narrow psychological perspective. The proposal, like a good whodunnit, that there is usually a psychological explanation in functional neurological disorder, is one that is easy for people to grasp. The neurology of the Cuban “sonic attacks”Allegations of “sonic attacks” on 21 US embassy staff members in Cuba first made headlines in 2017. Embassy personnel described hearing intense, mostly high-pitched sounds, often combined with pressure-like or vibratory sensations, and experiencing persistent neurological symptoms afterwards. Speculations about the origin of these symptoms have ranged from clandestine operations to mass hysteria. The medical debate about the nature of the ensuing neurological disorder has been similarly polarised. Full-Text PDF