The Sleeping Beauties

And Other Stories of Mystery Illness

De: Suzanne O'Sullivan

Narrado por: Suzanne O'Sullivan

In Sweden, hundreds of refugee children fall into a state that resembles sleep for months or years at a time. In Le Roy, a town in upstate New York, teenage girls develop involuntary twitches and seizures that spread like a conta­gion. In the US Embassy in Cuba, employees experience headaches and memory loss after hearing strange noises during the night. These are only a few of the many sus­pected culture-bound psychosomatic syndromes - specific sets of symptoms that exist in a particular culture or environment - that affect people throughout the world.

In The Sleeping Beauties, Dr. Suzanne O’Sullivan - an award-winning Irish neurologist - investigates psychosomatic disorders, traveling the world to visit communi­ties suffering from these so-called mystery illnesses. From a derelict post-Soviet mining town in Kazakhstan to the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua to the heart of the María Mountains in Colombia, O’Sullivan records the remark­able stories of syndromes related to her by people from all walks of life. Riveting and often distressing, these case studies are recounted with compassion and humanity.

In examining the complexity of psychogenic illness, O’Sullivan has written a book of both fascination and se­rious concern as these syndromes continue to proliferate around the globe.

©2021 Suzanne O'Sullivan (P)2021 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

"At once poignant, surprising and sometimes horrifying.... Empathic.... Dr. O’Sullivan uncovers these complex mechanisms while painting a picture of psychosomatic suffering that removes its associated stigma.... Radical.... The Sleeping Beauties offers a brilliant, nuanced and thoughtful look at the lived experience of illness while asking important questions about the relationship between body and mind. Dr. O’Sullivan’s rich prose weaves a tapestry as hauntingly beautiful as it is scientifically valid." (Wall Street Journal)

"Fascinating and provocative...[O'Sullivan is ] a globe-trotting Lisa Sanders: a briskly professional but secretly tenderhearted disease detective on a mission to dispel misconceptions that have become obstacles to cures...O’Sullivan’s logic is, well, infectious." (New York Times)

"In my view the best science writer around - a true descendant of Oliver Sacks." (Sathnam Sanghera, author of The Boy with the Topknot)