ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the works of Edward Shorter, Elaine Showalter and Ian Hacking are addressed in relation to contested illness. Shorter and Showalter both argue for a ‘continuity’ thesis, which places modern conditions like fibromyalgia alongside hysteria, positing that the presentation of such diseases changes over time given the different elements present in contemporary society. Ian Hacking’s work on dynamic feedback loops between the social sciences and categories of people is also explored, given its relevance for patient populations who react against their groupings in various ways. Taken together, these thinkers provide a further framework with which to understand the identities of patients with contest illnesses, who live in a thoroughly intertextual world. To what extent, though, can we say with confidence that symptoms are being generated by such processes? A critical evaluation is given as to the precise mechanism by which such things supposedly occur.
