Mad Travelers: Reflections on the Reality of Transient Mental Illnesses (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780813918235)

"It all began one morning last July when we noticed a young man of twenty-six crying in his bed in Dr. Pitre's ward. He had just come from a long journey on foot and was exhausted, but that was not the cause of his tears. He wept because he could not prevent himself from departing on a trip when the need took him; he deserted family, work, and daily life to walk as fast as he could, straight ahead, sometimes doing 70 kilometers a day on foot, until in the end he would be arrested for vagrancy and thrown in prison." -Dr. Philippe Tissie, July 1886Thus begins the recorded case history of Albert Dadas, a native of France's Bordeaux region and the first diagnosed mad traveler, or fuguer. An occasional employee of a local gas company, Dadas suffered from a strange compulsion that led him to travel obsessively, often without identification, not knowing who he was or why he traveled. He became notorious for his extraordinary expeditions to such far-reaching spots as Algeria, Moscow, and Constantinople. Medical reports of Dadas set off at the time of a small epidemic of compulsive mad voyagers, the epicenter of which was Bordeaux, but which soon spread throughout France to Italy, Germany, and Russia.

Author: Ian Hacking
ISBN-10: 0813918235
ISBN-13: 9780813918235
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Language: English
Published: 11/03/1998
Pages: 239
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.35lbs
Size: 9.31h x 6.30w x 1.01d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 10/19/1998 pg. 71
Library Journal 10/01/1998 pg. 119