Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id QAA09581 (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 16:06:29 GMT Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745AC4@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: old paper, but unnoticed (on this list) Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2000 16:00:23 -0000 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Thanks for this Derek,
I accessed this for free wiht no trouble, and very interesting it is too.
Quite disturbing to me was the description of so many well known disorders
as psychosomatic, e.g. repetitive strain injury, anorexia, irritable bowel
syndrome etc. etc. Not because, I hasten to add, that I'm a suffered of any
of these (although I know people who claim to be), but more because of the
popular (should I say journalistic?) tendency to read psychosomatic as
meaning 'made up'.
Of the question mark remains of how do we show that its memes at work in
psychosomatic illnesses? What are the manifest signs in an individual of
memetic illness, if you like?
Food for thought though.
Vincent
> ----------
> From: Gatherer, D. (Derek)
> Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Sent: Monday, October 30, 2000 2:51 pm
> To: 'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'
> Subject: old paper, but unnoticed (on this list)
>
> 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.
>
>
>
> ===============================================================
> This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
> Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
> For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
> see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
>
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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