Phantom Limb (American Lives) - Hardcover

Sternburg, Janet

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0803242964 ISBN 13: 9780803242968

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press, 2002

Synopsis

Phantom limb pain is one of the most intractable and merciless pains ever known - a pain that haunts appendages that do not physically exist, often persisting with uncanny realness long after fleshy limbs have been traumatically, surgically, or congenitally lost. The very existence and "naturalness" of this pain has been instrumental in modern science's ability to create prosthetic technologies that many feel have transformative, self-actualizing, and even transcendent power. In Phantom Limb, Cassandra S. Crawford critically examines phantom limb pain and its relationship to prosthetic innovation, tracing the major shifts in knowledge of the causes and characteristics of the phenomenon. Crawford exposes how the meanings of phantom limb pain have been influenced by developments in prosthetic science and ideas about the extraordinary power of these technologies to liberate and fundamentally alter the human body, mind, and spirit. Through intensive observation at a prosthetic clinic, interviews with key researchers and clinicians, and an analysis of historical and contemporary psychological and medical literature, she examines the modernization of amputation and exposes how medical understanding about phantom limbs has changed from the late-19th to the early-21st century. Crawford interrogates the impact of advances in technology, medicine, psychology and neuroscience, as well as changes in the meaning of limb loss, popular representations of amputees, and corporeal ideology. Phantom Limb questions our most deeply held ideas of what is normal, natural, and even moral about the physical human body. Cassandra S. Crawford is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Northern Illinois University and a faculty associate in Women's Studies and in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Studies.

About this title

Review

"A subtle, thought-filled meditation on loss. . . . Sternberg's prose is powered by imagistic accuracy and psychological immediacy--two horses that lesser writers let run wild. She holds their reins in a firm hand, and gently guides this book with intelligence and humility. . . . This is a book for anyone not afraid to look."--Liana Holmberg, "Manoa-The Mystified Boat"--Liana Holmberg "Manoa-The Mystified Boat "

Synopsis

'A haunting memoir - an absence that becomes in the telling an unforgettable presence. I am undone by this book' - Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey, author of "A Woman of Independent Means". 'Janet Sternburg has found the perfect metaphor for the tragedy of pain and loss, the ultimate inevitabilities of life' - Bill Moyers, broadcast journalist and editor of "Healing and the Mind". 'Sharply yet gently probing, Janet Sternburg in "Phantom Limb" investigates loss, and how memory is joy and pain. This is a moving, compassionate, beautifully written book' - Alicia Ostriker, author of "The Crack in Everything". '["Phantom Limb"] has the delicacy and grace of haiku, conveying great depth of feeling and sensibility with a few sure, strong strokes' - Anita Desai, author of "Baumgartner's Bombay".'A story shared by increasing numbers of American adults for whom the dying of aged parents is a compelled experience of growth and the renewal of filial love. Tough and delicate, heartbreaking and matter of fact - "Phantom Limb" is an unusual chronicle of a new kind of coming of age' - Honor Moore, author of "Darling".

"Phantom Limb" is a memoir for those who have experienced the final difficult years of a parent's life. Janet Sternburg's mother lost her leg, yet continued to feel the limb as though it were still present. Setting out to learn more about this mysterious condition, Sternburg encounters new ideas about the relationship of mind to body. She also finds a sense of freedom and depth of caring that continues after her parents have died. Sternburg suggests that we all have phantom limbs-someone no longer with us who remains a part of us. She writes about this paradox with such warmth and transformative imagination that the loss itself becomes luminous.At once a deeply moving chronicle of discovering love through adversity, an inquiry into what contemporary neurology has to teach us, and a meditation on the inexplicable suffering life sometimes brings, "Phantom Limb" links us all in the struggle to make peace with physical and emotional ghosts of the past. Janet Sternburg is a widely published poet and essayist whose books include two volumes of "The Writer on Her Work".

She is also a visual artist whose work appears in private and museum collections and is on the faculty of the California Institute for the Arts.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0803242964
• ISBN 13: 9780803242968
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 148