Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id OAA09285 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 30 Oct 2000 14:57:24 GMT Message-ID: <A4400389479FD3118C9400508B0FF23004107F@DELTA.newhouse.akzonobel.nl> From: "Gatherer, D. (Derek)" <D.Gatherer@organon.nhe.akzonobel.nl> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: old paper, but unnoticed (on this list) Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2000 15:51:36 +0100 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
http://www.annals.org/issues/v131n11/full/199912070-00019.html
I think you have to pay for this one, but maybe the author will send
reprints.
"Memes" as infectious agents in psychosomatic illness.
Ann Intern Med 1999 Dec 7;131(11):867-71
Ross SE
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver 80262, USA.
steve.ross@uchsc.edu
Abstract:
Can a mere idea cause medical pathology? Many authors would say yes. It has
been claimed, for instance, that fibromyalgia, the irritable bowel syndrome,
and the chronic fatigue syndrome are iatrogenic that these are not simply
methods for classifying illness, but that these nosologic constructions
actually induce and sustain illness in susceptible persons (1). The
contagiousness of eating disorders has also been remarked upon (2). This
contagion is not the result of any classic pathogen (a microbe or a
toxin)instead, a socially constructed script of anorexia nervosa or bulimia
is transmitted from person to person. Intangible disease constructions also
appear to be the communicable pathogens in several contemporary epidemics,
from "repetition strain injury" in mid-1980s Australia (3, 4) to instances
of "mass psychogenic illness" or "epidemic hysteria" (5-9), such as the
recent outbreak of cola-associated illness in Belgium (10, 11).
Thus, it has been asserted that a virulent idea, a maladaptive social
construction of disease, can be found at the core of these diverse
disorders. In this essay I explore how such disease conceptions, which I
term psychosomatic memes, act as transmissible templates. They are analyzed
as infectious agents that, like microbes, have virulence factors, affect
hosts with particular vulnerabilities, are disseminated through a variety of
vectors, and are promoted or inhibited by various components of the social
ecology.
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