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The word 'hypochondria' has travelled from meaning physical ailments in a particular region of your body, to ones that are only in your mind. It has been in fashion, and thoroughly out; it has been subject to a range of treatments; it has been lucrative for quacks; and it's a very understandable form of anxiety - which I have, and so does Caroline Crampton, author of the new book A Body Made of Glass: A History of Hypochondria.
Content note: this episode contains a lot of discussion about health anxiety. There are mentions of cancer, doctors and hospitals - but not detailed accounts of medical conditions or treatments.
EXTRA MATERIALS:
There are several Otherlusionists related to this one!
★ You can hear Caroline talking about whodunnit authors’ pseudonyms in Alter Ego, and slang of the golden age of detective fiction in The Bees’ Knees.
★ Also thanks to her enlisting her husband Guy Cuthbertson, we got the episode about convalescent literature, A Novel Remedy.
★ In Bonus 2016, I covered the Four Humors-related etymologies of ‘sanguine’ and ‘temperament’. And the today’s-episode-related etymology of ‘quack’.
★ Tim Clare discussed anxiety on Coward.As for Jane Austen: my podcolleague Jenny Owen Youngs and I have recapped the 1995 BBC miniseries of Pride and Prejudice…
AND the 2005 movie adaptation.
“Jane Austen, one of the earliest female novelists and the first to write engagingly about provincial gentry life, employed illness and injury frequently in her works… one of the more puzzling representations of illness in her work involves rain and its apparently near-lethal qualities.”
About historic cordials.
CW cancer, death: “Personal stories about serious illness are hardly uncommon. Yet the preeminent narrators of sickness and dying in America tend to be people and institutions that are not ill… Patient voices remain plentiful and important, but not nearly as influential on how we think about sickness and death.”
“There are recorded references throughout the Middle Ages and into the 17th century of people who believed they possessed glass hearts, feet and heads. Others thought they were actually glass flasks. Men seem to have had a certain predilection for glass buttocks, which would shatter if they sat down without a pillow strapped to their behinds.”
Support the show at theallusionist.org/donate and as well as keeping this independent podcast going, you also get behind-the-scenes glimpses about every episode, fortnightly livestreams with me and my dictionaries, and the Allusioverse Discord community.
There’s a space-themed live Allusionist IN THE PLANETARIUM at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver BC on 18 April 2024. The evening’s entertainments include a talk about space terms by astronomer Marley Leacock. Tickets are on sale now, at early bird prices until 28 March.
YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
edaphic, adjective: ecology of, produced by, or influenced by the soil.
Origin 19th century, coined in German from Greek edaphos 'floor' + -ic.
CREDITS:
Caroline Crampton makes Shedunnit podcast, about golden age detective fiction - I’m on a recent episode, you can hear it and all the other episodes, and join the Shedunnit book club, at shedunnitshow.com - and she is the author of the new book A Body Made Of Glass: A History of Hypochondria.
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman, on the unceded ancestral and traditional territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
The original Allusionist music is by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch.
Find the Allusionist at youtube.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, @allusionistshow.bsky.social and instagram.com/allusionistshow
Back in two weeks with a new episode - HZ.
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