Frank Bures

Travel writer Frank Bures investigates the strange phenomenon of 'culture-bound' syndromes across the world: illnesses with a combination of psychiatric and somatic symptoms that are only considered to be a disease within a specific society or culture. They are found across the world within cultures and viewed from outside can seem both mysterious and odd. Bures has travelled worldwide and recounts strange cases such as voodoo death and penis theft. He investigates epidemics that seem like madness to outsiders but all-too-real to those experiencing them.

Penis Thieves, Voodoo Death, and the Search for the Meaning of the World's Strangest Syndromes

The Geography of Madness

Deliligin Cografyasi

Why do thousands of African men become convinced--despite what doctors tell them--that their penises have, simply, disappeared. Why do people across the world become convinced that they are cursed to die on a particular date--and then do? Why do people in Malaysia suddenly "run amok"? In The Geography of Madness, acclaimed magazine writer Frank Bures investigates these and other "culture-bound" syndromes, tracing each seemingly baffling phenomenon to its source. It's a fascinating, and at times rollicking, adventure that takes the reader around the world and deep into the oddities of the human psyche. What Bures uncovers along the way is a poignant and stirring story of the persistence of belief, fear, and hope. From the Hardcover edition.

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Frank Bures

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