Pathologies of Motion: Historical Thinking in Medicine, Aesthetics, and Poetics

This book explores the relationship between eighteenth-century aesthetics, poetics, and environmental medicine, arguing that nostalgia persisted in these fields as a set of formal principles and practices, perturbing claims about the harmony, freedom, and free play of the mind.

Format: Hardback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 28 March 2023
Publisher: Yale University Press

This comprehensive book delves into the interconnected realms of late Enlightenment aesthetics, poetics, and environmental medicine, offering a fresh perspective on understanding the complexities of historical existence. By examining the relationship between the geographical movements of individuals displaced from their homes and the physiological and nervous "motions" within their bodies and minds, it sheds light on a lesser-known area of eighteenth-century environmental medicine: philosophical pathology.

Philosophical pathology, rather than being a mere system of diagnosis or classification, emerged as an art of interpretation, providing sophisticated methods for reading the myriad of conditions and causes of disease, even when they were imperceptible to the naked eye. It played a crucial role for medical, anthropological, environmental, and literary authors alike, aiding in locating the dislocations of modern mobility when a complete understanding of their causes and conditions remained incomplete or still unfolding.

Goodman's study traces the surprising persistence of the periods of exemplary but unexplained pathology of motion, medical nostalgia, within aesthetic theory and poetics. He argues that nostalgia persisted in these fields not as a named condition but as a set of formal principles and practices that disrupted claims about the harmony, freedom, and free play of the mind. Through meticulous research and analysis, Goodman provides a rich and nuanced exploration of the interplay between medicine, aesthetics, and environmentalism in the late Enlightenment, offering valuable insights into the complexities of human experience and the ways in which these disciplines shaped our understanding of the world.

Weight: 564g
Dimension: 165 x 244 x 29 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780300243963