The culture of insomnia

Abstract

Reviews the book, Insomnia: A Cultural History by Eluned Summers-Bremner (2007). This book moves at a tremendous pace and flies in all directions, echoed by Penelope’s night work at the loom, which is made to reflect, as well as the beauty of the stories and tapestries of Greece, the weaving in and out of the thoughts of insomnia. Although we may agree or disagree with many of these specific positions, the wide view of culture and the different interpretations of insomnia adopted by Summers-Bremner challenge us to look at how our own civilization affects our own scientific outlook and beliefs. The metaphor of insomnia has had many shades of meaning and, at least until von Economo, was subject to fault-filled science. Moving to a wider field, and although usually pioneering in their approach and meticulous in their experimental method and observation, the scientific conclusions of Parkinson, Darwin and Charcot can today be seen as sometimes biased. Society as a whole remains divided in its approach to science, with widely divergent fundamental views on issues such as abortion, assisted conception, euthanasia and human nature itself. This book is surely enough to make us all question the grounding of our science, as well as to keep any sleeper awake. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)