Foot notes: Retracing the steps towards diagnosis. Issue 4 (July 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Engle, Karen
• Is Part Of: Sociological review. Volume 70:Issue 4(2022)
• Page Start: 744
• Page End: 761
• Publication Date: 2022-07
• Subjects: fibromyalgia -- gender -- hysteria -- memoir; Sociology -- Periodicals; 301
• DOI: 10.1177/00380261221106519
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0038-0261

Abstract

In this article, I describe the experience of a chronic pain diagnosis. Combining memoir, medical history, and literary precedents, I begin with a reflection on my own history with walking. Walking leads to foot pain which eventually leads to diagnosis of a full-body chronic condition: fibromyalgia. Through an exploration of the history of hysteria, one of fibromyalgia's ancestors, I consider some of the resonances between these conditions.