The Shaking Woman or A History of My Nerves - Tapa dura

'A personal investigation, a philosophical inquiry, and a pith, compacted consideration of how both psychiatry and neurology have evolved in the last two centuries...She brings both knowledge and an artist's insight to her discussion of memory, language, personal identity. Readers of Oliver Sacks will rate this book highly.' -- Hilary Mantel, Guardian 'She has an enviable ability to digest and reframe her discoveries into clear, accessible prose...a bracing shower -- vigorous and stimulating -- in which the reader can feel the power of ideas, as it were, soaking into the skin.' -- Melanie McGrath, Sunday Telegraph 'She thinks her way through complex subject matter with the effortless clarity of a poised and sceptical outsider who has little time for nonsense or the blithe reductionist certainties of supposed experts...The result is a short book with an encyclopaedic breadth' -- Lisa Appignanesi, Independent 'Fascinating...what gives the book its originality is that she wavers on the edge of the various disciplines, preferring her own imaginative, deeply personal reflections to the potential certainty that might be offered by doctors...Although a desire for clear-cut answers is understandable, Hustvedt suggests that this is often far from possible. And she leaves the reader thinking about his or her own bouts of illness in a thoroughly fresh way.' -- Lorna Bradbury, Daily Telegraph 'Provocative but often funny, encyclopedic but down to earth...It brings together an extraordinary double story: that of Hustvedt's own odyssey of discovery, and of that point where brain and mind, neurology and psychiatry, come together in the realm of neuropsychoanalysis. The odyssey has not cured her, nor led to a conclusion -- but Hustvedt's erudite book deepens one's wonder about the relation of body and mind.' -- Oliver Sacks

While speaking at a memorial event for her father, Siri Hustvedt suffered a violent seizure from the neck down. She managed to finish her talk and the paroxysms stopped, but not for good. Again and again she found herself a victim of the shudders. What had happened?Chronicling her search for the shaking woman, Hustvedt takes the reader on a journey into contemporary psychiatry, neurology and psychoanalysis. She unearths stories and theories from the annals of medical history, literature and philosophy, and delves into her own past. In the process, she raises fundamental questions: what is the relationship between mind and body? How do we remember? What is the self?In a seamless synthesis of personal experience and extensive research, Hustvedt conveys the often frightening mysteries of illness and the complexities of diagnosis. As engaging as it is thought-provoking, The Shaking Woman brilliantly illuminates the age-old dilemma of the mental and the physical, and what it means to be human.