now out! a history (that i co-wrote with Todd Meyers) of the emergence of theories of homeostasis and bodily fragility out of the bodily injuries of World War I. It begins with prewar neurology, physiology, and psychiatry, looks at brain injuries, bodily shock, and case histories, turns to the theorists of bodily integrity after the war, and concludes with the consequences of this idea for concepts of the individual, of pain, of crisis, and of catastrophe; for psychiatry and psychoanalysis; for theories of international politics, anthropology, cybernetics, and, well, witchcraft; and for the long history of the welfare state.
order it at the univ. of chicago press or on amazon
