For most people today, I think it’s fair to say, the story of Jekyll and Hyde is a rough outline of a tale, a fairly straightforward allegory of the potential dark side within us all. Read Robert Louis Stevenson’s original novella, however, and you immediately realise there is so much read more…
Medicine
Ep 24: Words To That Effect Live at Liberty Hall
Words To That Effect is back! Episode 24 is a recording of September’s live show for the Dublin Podcast Festival. This episode is a story about a long-forgotten nervous disease. But it’s also a story of science and culture, psychology and mental health, feminism and creativity, war and masculinity. It’s read more…
Episode 11: Cesare Lombroso & The Born Criminal
Turin in the 19th Century The northern Italian city of Turin is quite distinctive as Italian cities go. It is still Italy, so of course it has its grand piazzas and ornate churches, and pasta and pizza and cappuccinos. But whereas in so many Italian cities it is read more…
Episode 8: A Lawyer, an Author, and a Murderer – The Trial of William Edward Hickman
“The most horrible crime of the 1920s” The case of William Edward Hickman went to trial in Los Angeles in 1928. The accused was charged with the gruesome murder of a 12-year-old girl, and he faced the death penalty. The trial was reported all across the U.S. because it was read more…
Neurasthenia Advertisements [Article]
Hurrying and worrying in the struggle for success “Neurasthenia” was the term used in the 19th and early 20th century to classify a broad swathe of illnesses, from anxiety to depression, fatigue to trauma. It was widely used across the world, but particularly in the U.S. For more on how neurasthenia read more…
Episode 6: Neurasthenia, Cowboys, and Feminists
Neurasthenia: The “National Disease of America” In 1881 an American neurologist named George Miller Beard published a hugely influential book: American Nervousness. In it, he laid out the symptoms, cures, and implications of what he called “neurasthenia”, essentially what one might call nervous exhaustion. Beard didn’t coin the term but read more…