ABSTRACT
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 durée 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 euphoria—a 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 Freud’s interest in Euphorie in his pre-psychoanalytical period.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|20 pages
The Perception of Health
part II|62 pages
The Misperception of Health
part III|84 pages
The Misperceiving Other
part IV|47 pages
Euphoria
part V|31 pages
The Misperception of Well-Being