A Phenomenology of Functional Neurological Disorder
Body, Self, World
Kevin Aho(Author)
Routledge (Publisher)
1st Edition
Will be published approx. on 4. September 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-1-032-99524-3 (ISBN)
Description
Functional neurological disorder (FND)-once associated with hysteria-remains one of the most enigmatic and contested conditions in contemporary medicine. Situated at the fraught intersection of neurology and psychiatry, it raises fundamental questions about the nature of illness, embodiment, and the limits of biomedical explanation.
In A Phenomenology of Functional Neurological Disorder, Kevin Aho offers the first sustained phenomenological account of FND. Drawing on thinkers such as Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Gadamer, and Jaspers, Aho examines how the disorder disrupts the structure of embodiment, unsettles self-perception, and transforms one's sense of space and time. Integrating philosophical analysis with first-person narratives-including his own-he brings into view the often overlooked existential dimensions of a condition that is frequently misunderstood or dismissed.
Challenging the entrenched divide between mind and body in modern medicine, this book advances a new framework for understanding FND-one with important implications for philosophy of psychiatry, medical humanities, and clinical practice. By illuminating both what it means and what it feels like to live with the disorder, Aho deepens our theoretical understanding of illness while calling for more humane and responsive forms of care.
This timely and original work will be essential reading for scholars and students of phenomenology, philosophy of medicine, and psychiatry, as well as for clinicians seeking a richer understanding of patient experience.
In A Phenomenology of Functional Neurological Disorder, Kevin Aho offers the first sustained phenomenological account of FND. Drawing on thinkers such as Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Gadamer, and Jaspers, Aho examines how the disorder disrupts the structure of embodiment, unsettles self-perception, and transforms one's sense of space and time. Integrating philosophical analysis with first-person narratives-including his own-he brings into view the often overlooked existential dimensions of a condition that is frequently misunderstood or dismissed.
Challenging the entrenched divide between mind and body in modern medicine, this book advances a new framework for understanding FND-one with important implications for philosophy of psychiatry, medical humanities, and clinical practice. By illuminating both what it means and what it feels like to live with the disorder, Aho deepens our theoretical understanding of illness while calling for more humane and responsive forms of care.
This timely and original work will be essential reading for scholars and students of phenomenology, philosophy of medicine, and psychiatry, as well as for clinicians seeking a richer understanding of patient experience.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Postgraduate and Undergraduate Advanced
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-032-99524-3 (9781032995243)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
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Book
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1st Edition
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Routledge
€60.49
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Person
Kevin Aho is Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Department of Communication and Philosophy at Florida Gulf Coast University, USA. He has published widely in the areas of existentialism, applied hermeneutics and phenomenology, and phenomenological psychopathology. He is the author of One Beat More: Existentialism and the Gift of Mortality (2022), Existentialism: An Introduction (2014. 2nd ed. 2020), Contexts of Suffering: A Heideggerian Approach to Psychopathology (2019), Heidegger's Neglect of the Body (2009), and Body Matters: A Phenomenology of Sickness, Illness, and Disease, with James Aho (2008). He is also editor of Existential Medicine: Essays on Health and Illness (2018) and co-editor of The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Existentialism (2024).
Content
Acknowledgements
Introduction
What is Functional Neurological Disorder
A Phenomenological Approach to FND
Chapter Overview
Chapter 1. From Hysteria to FND
1.1 Hysteria: A Brief History
1.2 Hysteria and Neurasthenia
1.3 FND and the DSM
1.4 The Crisis of Neuroscience and the Role of Phenomenology
Chapter 2. The Search for a Diagnosis
2.1 The Uncanny and the Collapse of Understanding
2.2 The Problem of Certainty
2.3 Critical Phenomenology and the Harms of Invalidation
2.4 The Problem of Psychogenesis
Chapter 3. Body, Shame, and Guilt
3.1 The Phenomenology of Shame
3.2 Clinical Shame
3.3 Shame and Guilt
3.4 Shame and Women's Bodies
Chapter 4. Time, Space, and Intersubjectivity
4.1 The Loss of Ecstatic Time
4.2 Crip Time, Intersectionality, and the Achievement Society
4.3 The Collapse of Space
4.3 Loss of the With-World
Chapter 5. Chaos Narratives
5.1 Narrative Identity
5.2 Narrative Chaos
5.3 The Grief of Chaos
5.4 The Problem of the Sick Role
5.5 Healing as Possibilizing
Chapter 6. Empathy, Acceptance, and the Limits of Neuroscience
6.1 The Meaning of Being a Person
6.2 The Worldly Locus of FND
6.3 Empathy and the Un-Understandable
6.4 The Problem of Acceptance
6.5 Authenticity and Existential Healing
Chapter 7. Conclusion
7.1 The Loss of Medical Power
7.2 The Art of Healing
Afterword
References
Index
Introduction
What is Functional Neurological Disorder
A Phenomenological Approach to FND
Chapter Overview
Chapter 1. From Hysteria to FND
1.1 Hysteria: A Brief History
1.2 Hysteria and Neurasthenia
1.3 FND and the DSM
1.4 The Crisis of Neuroscience and the Role of Phenomenology
Chapter 2. The Search for a Diagnosis
2.1 The Uncanny and the Collapse of Understanding
2.2 The Problem of Certainty
2.3 Critical Phenomenology and the Harms of Invalidation
2.4 The Problem of Psychogenesis
Chapter 3. Body, Shame, and Guilt
3.1 The Phenomenology of Shame
3.2 Clinical Shame
3.3 Shame and Guilt
3.4 Shame and Women's Bodies
Chapter 4. Time, Space, and Intersubjectivity
4.1 The Loss of Ecstatic Time
4.2 Crip Time, Intersectionality, and the Achievement Society
4.3 The Collapse of Space
4.3 Loss of the With-World
Chapter 5. Chaos Narratives
5.1 Narrative Identity
5.2 Narrative Chaos
5.3 The Grief of Chaos
5.4 The Problem of the Sick Role
5.5 Healing as Possibilizing
Chapter 6. Empathy, Acceptance, and the Limits of Neuroscience
6.1 The Meaning of Being a Person
6.2 The Worldly Locus of FND
6.3 Empathy and the Un-Understandable
6.4 The Problem of Acceptance
6.5 Authenticity and Existential Healing
Chapter 7. Conclusion
7.1 The Loss of Medical Power
7.2 The Art of Healing
Afterword
References
Index