Description
Book SynopsisA cultural history and sociological critique of 20th century panic, from the Cold War to contemporary psychiatry
Trade Review“Jackie Orr is one of sociology’s most inventive theorists. Here in
Panic Diaries she is brilliantly interdisciplinary, joining social theory with rigorous historical research, feminist criticism, and science studies to give us a genealogy of panic from its invention in nineteenth-century social science to its late-twentieth-century medicalization as panic disorder. And more, all of this is cut through with autobiographic experimental writing that makes your heart beat faster—a first-hand experience of panic. A book to read, a book to teach.”—Patricia Ticineto Clough, author of
Autoaffection: Unconscious Thought in the Age of Technology“Packed with original interpretations of historical material, textually innovative, and theoretically brilliant, this book is full of mind-blowing insights for anyone interested in the science and culture of panic.”—Emily Martin, author of
The Woman in the Body: A Cultural Analysis of Reproduction“Brilliantly inventive. . . . Though [Orr] makes a compelling argument about the manipulation of ‘panic’ by everyone, from transnational drug companies to the entire field of psychiatry, it’s her personal revelations that will cut right through you in this remarkable read.” -- Diane Anderson-Minshall * Curve *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Prologue 1
1. History, Memory, Story: Openings 3
2. The Martian in the Machine: Panic Theory and Theaters of War 33
3. “Keep Calm!” for the Cold War: Diary of a Mental Patient 79
4. Performing Methods: Cybernetics, Psychopharmacology, and Postwar Psychiatry 165
5. Panic Xanax: A Patient Diary 211
Epilogue 275
Notes 281
Bibliography 323
Index 347
