A Phenomenology of Functional Neurological Disorder: Body, Self, World

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 un