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

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 dur?e 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 euphoriaa 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 Freuds interest in Euphorie in his pre-psychoanalytical period.

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 Si?cle: Decadence, Degeneration and the Pleasures of Declining Health  10. Partial Insanity: Resemblances Between the Mad and the Sane  11. Addictive Medicine: Resemblances Between Oblivion and Restoration  Part IV: Euphoria  12. A History of Euphoria&l£3