Throughout history, there have been many mental illnesses that have spread widely only to disappear years later because they are problematic or discriminatory, laughable or preposterous, or simply no longer relevant. This episode explores six disorders that were once considered real threats to people’s sanity, but have now vanished from modern psychology.
SHOW SOURCES & SUPPLEMENTALS
On Railway and other Injuries of the Nervous System, John E. Erichsen, 1867
Chlorosis, anaemia, and anorexia nervosa, I. S. L. Loudon, 1980
“The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1892
A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States, Frederick Law Olmsted, 1856
“Licentiate Vidriera,” Miguel de Cervantes, 1613
An odd kind of melancholy: reflections on the glass delusion in Europe, Gill Speak, 1990