Brain Injury with Tammy Kirkwood

In his riveting tale of how psychiatrists “medicalize” human suffering, Gary Greenberg recounts that, in 1850, a physician called Samuel Cartwright reported a new disease in the highly respected New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal. Cartwright named it drapetomania, from the ancient Greek drapetes for a runaway slave; in other words, here was a disease that “caused Negroes to run away.” It had one primary diagnostic symptom — “absconding from service” — and a few secondary ones, including “sulkiness and dissatisfaction just prior to flight.”