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Letters - Perception and Distortion - NYTimes.com NYT Review of Books April 18, 2010
Letters - Perception and Distortion - NYTimes.com
Letters
Perception and Distortion
Published: April 15, 2010
To the Editor:
'The Shaking Woman,' by Siri Hustvedt: Seized (April 4, 2010)
As is the case in most presentations of “unexplainable” neurological-psychiatric symptoms, there are unspeakables in Siri Hustvedt’s book “The Shaking Woman” (April 4): the horror of a vague, transgenerationally transmitted memory of a witnessed wartime atrocity; the pain and fear of cumulative loss. Any attempt to put the unspeakable on paper will necessarily fall short, but Hustvedt’s sustained argument in the book is precisely that all categories — medical and philosophical — are in themselves subject to ambiguity.
Criticizing it for its failure to address the pain of caregivers is a non sequitur. The reviewer, I am afraid, fell into the same fallacy she accuses Hustvedt of: seeing and hearing only what she wanted to see and hear. In my work as a clinical and forensic neurologist-psychiatrist, I am used to seeing unspeakable emotional pain causing perceptual distortions. Neither literary creation nor its criticism are exempt from this fundamental observation.
MAURICE PRETER
New York
The writer is an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University and an adjunct associate professor of neurology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center.
Letters
Perception and Distortion
Published: April 15, 2010
To the Editor:
'The Shaking Woman,' by Siri Hustvedt: Seized (April 4, 2010)
As is the case in most presentations of “unexplainable” neurological-psychiatric symptoms, there are unspeakables in Siri Hustvedt’s book “The Shaking Woman” (April 4): the horror of a vague, transgenerationally transmitted memory of a witnessed wartime atrocity; the pain and fear of cumulative loss. Any attempt to put the unspeakable on paper will necessarily fall short, but Hustvedt’s sustained argument in the book is precisely that all categories — medical and philosophical — are in themselves subject to ambiguity.
Criticizing it for its failure to address the pain of caregivers is a non sequitur. The reviewer, I am afraid, fell into the same fallacy she accuses Hustvedt of: seeing and hearing only what she wanted to see and hear. In my work as a clinical and forensic neurologist-psychiatrist, I am used to seeing unspeakable emotional pain causing perceptual distortions. Neither literary creation nor its criticism are exempt from this fundamental observation.
MAURICE PRETER
New York
The writer is an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University and an adjunct associate professor of neurology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center.
Friday, April 16, 2010
A conversation between Siri Hustvedt and Maurice Preter MD
In 2006, the novelist and essayist Siri Hustvedt suffered an inexplicable seizure while speaking at a memorial service for her father. The seizures continued to occur, and the condition remains undiagnosed. Her most recent book The Shaking Woman or A History of My Nerves tells the story of her condition and explores her symptoms through the lenses of several disciplines: medical history, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, contemporary neuroscience, philosophy, and literature. Hustvedt has a PhD in English literature from Columbia and has worked as a writing teacher with psychiatric patients at the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic in New York. Her web site is www.sirihustvedt.
Maurice Preter, MD is a practicing neurologist, psychiatrist, and psychotherapist. Dr. Preter received his training in neurology and psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and is board certified in both specialties. He has done neuropsychiatric research in stress, anxiety, panic disorder, and psychological trauma. A member of the psychiatry faculty of Columbia University’s College of Physician’s and Surgeons, his particular interest is in the treatment of conditions that cross the conventional and limiting borders of psychiatry, neurology, and general medicine. His web site is www.psychiatryneurology.net.
Please join us for a discussion between Siri Hustvedt and Dr. Maurice Preter on unexplained medical symptoms, their meanings for patients and for doctors, and the vital importance of viewing illness, no matter how mysterious, in a narrative context.
Hosted by Dr. Rita Charon and the Program in Narrative Medicine.
Wednesday May 12th at 5:00 PM in the Faculty Club in the Physicians & Surgeons Building, 4th floor, Room #446.
Cross-posted from http://www.psychiatryneurology.net/News.html
PDF: http://psychiatryneurology.com/SiriHustvedt_MauricePreter_flyer.pdf
Click here to listen
Maurice Preter, MD is a practicing neurologist, psychiatrist, and psychotherapist. Dr. Preter received his training in neurology and psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and is board certified in both specialties. He has done neuropsychiatric research in stress, anxiety, panic disorder, and psychological trauma. A member of the psychiatry faculty of Columbia University’s College of Physician’s and Surgeons, his particular interest is in the treatment of conditions that cross the conventional and limiting borders of psychiatry, neurology, and general medicine. His web site is www.psychiatryneurology.net.
Please join us for a discussion between Siri Hustvedt and Dr. Maurice Preter on unexplained medical symptoms, their meanings for patients and for doctors, and the vital importance of viewing illness, no matter how mysterious, in a narrative context.
Hosted by Dr. Rita Charon and the Program in Narrative Medicine.
Wednesday May 12th at 5:00 PM in the Faculty Club in the Physicians & Surgeons Building, 4th floor, Room #446.
Cross-posted from http://www.psychiatryneurology.net/News.html
PDF: http://psychiatryneurology.com/SiriHustvedt_MauricePreter_flyer.pdf
Click here to listen
Sunday, April 11, 2010
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