{The Joy of Disease}[25th July 1990]

[Redbook7:169][19900725:0007]{The Joy of Disease}[25th July 1990]

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19900725.0007

[A newspaper article headlined ‘Second Opinion’ ‘The germ of a happy disease’ by Dr James Le Fanu (probably from The Independent newspaper), copied here in the ms but which cannot be reproduced for copyright reasons, discusses certain medical conditions which in some cases can lead to happiness or even euphoria: multiple sclerosis, hysterical paralysis, serious burns, epilepsy before (quoting Dostoevsky: ‘For a few moment I feel such a happiness that other people cannot imagine it. It is so strong and so sweet that for a few seconds of this enjoyment one would readily exchange ten years of one’s life – perhaps even one’s whole life’)* or during a seizure, and mania (quoting Charles Lamb writing to Coleridge: ‘I look back on it with a kind of gloomy envy, for while it lasted I had many, many hours of pure happiness. Dream not, Coleridge, of having tasted the grandeur and wildness of Fancy until you have gone mad.’)

*ref Vol.... [[Redbook3:181][19870413:1450](FITS)[13th April 1987]; & cf

[Redbook5:35][19880304:1835e]{Epilepsy}[3rd March 1988]]

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