A Phenomenology of Functional Neurological Disorder

This book presents the first interpretative phenomenological account of functional neurological disorder (FND). It captures the experiential complexity of the condition and gives voice to its personal, social, emotional, and existential challenges.

FND presents a vast range of symptoms, from uncontrolled bodily movements, seizures, and paralysis as well as chronic pain and sensory disturbances. Individuals who suffer from this condition often report feeling neglect from the medical community because, absent a biological explanation, the condition is often viewed as somehow 'unreal' or 'in your head'. This book provides a clear and comprehensive picture of what it means and what it feels like to live with FND. Drawing on first-person accounts, including the author's own experience living with FND, and the conceptual frameworks of existential and hermeneutic phenomenology, the book explores the long and difficult journey sufferers take to get a diagnosis for a neurological disorder that is incompatible with neurological disease. The book then examines how the symptoms of FND fundamentally alter the meaning-structures that constitute subjectivity. Chapters focus specifically on the structures of affectivity, embodiment, space and time, and self-understanding. Phenomenological research demonstrates how, when stricken with chronic illness and disability, the structural totality that holds our being (or identity) together can collapse or break apart, resulting in a struggle to give meaning to our lives and make sense of who we are, a problem complicated by the fact that FND sufferers are often unclear about what it is they are afflicted with. The book concludes by introducing a person-centered approach to care, where the focus is not on 'curing' disease but on 'healing' the person.

A Phenomenology of Functional Neurological Disorder will appeal to philosophers, graduate students, medical humanists, clinicians, and allied health professionals with interests in the philosophy of psychiatry, phenomenological psychopathology, existential and hermeneutic phenomenology, philosophies of the embodiment, phenomenological bioethics, and critical phenomenology.